Thermal spray metallization

plasma

Air Plasma Spray (APS) is the most flexible of all of the thermal spray processes as it has enough energy to melt or plasticize any material from polymers to ceramics. As feedstock it uses powder that permits the application of any kind of material. A mixture of gases (normally Argon or Nitrogen and Hydrogen) is ionized to become a plasma plume with a temperature of 6,600 °C to 16,600 °C. When the coating powder is injected into the plume, it is melted and accelerated towards the substrate. Even if it could spray almost all types of materials, APS is commonly used for spraying ceramics, abradable coatings and metals with high melting points (like molybdenum).