Materials E-Guide
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Oerlikon Metco offers the largest selection plasma spray guns in the industry, so our customers can choose the ideal tool for their specific coating and production requirements. Our plasma spray guns are the choice of thousands of customers worldwide, and are renowned for reliable and consistent performance. Most likely, we have the ideal spray gun for your application. We also have a wide variety of options for our plasma spray guns, such as specialized nozzle configurations, powder injectors, injector holders and air jets.
Plasma Spray Guns
How Does a Plasma Spray Gun Work?
The plasma spray gun is a part of thermal spray coating system called plasma spray process. The flexibility of the plasma spray process comes from its ability to develop sufficient energy to melt almost any coating feedstock material in powder form and the plasma spray gun plays a vital part in that. The plasma spray gun utilizes a chamber with one or more cathodes (electrodes) and an anode (nozzle). With process gases flowing through the chamber, direct current power is applied to the cathode, which arcs to the anode. The powerful arc strips the gas molecules of their electrons to form a plasma plume. As the unstable plasma ions recombine back to the gaseous state, a tremendous level of thermal energy is released. The feedstock material is injected into the hot gas plume, where it is melted and propelled towards the target substrate to form the coating.
The distance of the plasma spray gun from the target components, the relative motion of the spray gun and target component to each other, as well as part cooling — usually as air jets focused on the target substrate —keep the substrate at a controlled temperature in the range of 38 °C to 260 °C (100 °F to 500 °F).
Different Types of Plasma Spray Guns
Oerlikon Metco offers three different plasma spray guns. The differences lie primarily in their operating environments and the control over the atmosphere during the plasma spray process:
- External Atmospheric Plasma Spray Gun: In this type of plasma spray gun, the spraying process occurs in an open-air environment. The gun generates plasma externally and then sprays it onto the substrate. This method is relatively simple and commonly used for coating various materials.
- Internal Atmospheric Plasma Spray Gun: Unlike the external type, the internal atmospheric plasma spray gun generates plasma within a controlled chamber. This chamber is typically filled with an inert gas, such as argon or nitrogen, to provide a stable atmosphere for plasma generation. The generated plasma is then expelled through a nozzle onto the substrate. This method allows for more precise control over the plasma generation process and can result in higher-quality coatings.
- Controlled Atmospheric Plasma Spray Gun: This type of plasma spray gun offers the highest level of control over the spraying environment. It allows for precise regulation of factors such as gas composition, pressure, and temperature within the spraying chamber. By adjusting these parameters, operators can optimize the plasma spraying process for specific coating materials and applications. Controlled atmospheric plasma spray guns are often used in research and specialized industrial applications where precise control over coating properties is essential.
In summary, the main differences between these types of plasma spray guns lie in the environment in which plasma is generated and the degree of control over atmospheric conditions during the spraying process.
