Ceramic coatings produced by means of a gas tunnel-type plasma jet

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Abstract
A gas tunnel-type plasma jet has a higher temperature than any other plasma jets; a high-power stabilized plasma beam can be easily obtained. Moreover, it is possible to inject various materials from the center electrode toward the center of this plasma beam. These properties of the gas tunnel-type plasma jet apparatus are of great advantage to the application to the thermal spraying of high melting point materials such as ceramics. The fundamental characteristics of this new type of plasma spraying apparatus were determined through experimentation, and a variety of ceramic coatings produced using this apparatus were studied. Since this system is very effective in heating and melting sprayed powder, high-quality ceramic coatings can be easily produced even at a small power using argon as the working gas. At 30 kW or more, the Vickers hardness of the various ceramic coatings is 30% greater than that produced with a conventional-type plasma spraying apparatus. For example, a Vickers hardness value of 1200 has been achieved for Al2O3 coatings.

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