Abstract No.:	2690
Title:	An improvement of low power plasma torch for very low pressure plasma sprayed thin and dense ceramic coatings
Authors:	Lin Zhu / Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France Nannan Zhang / Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France Fu Sun/ Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France Rodolphe Bolot/ Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France Hanlin Liao/ Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France Christian Coddet/ Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Matériaux, les Procédés et les Surfaces, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France
Abstract:	As a promising thermal spraying technology, very low pressure plasma spraying has been used to deposit thin, dense and homogenous ceramic coating materials for the special applications in recent years. In this study, a home-made transferred arc nozzle was mounted on the low power plasma torch F100 for increasing the plasma arc energy to completely melt or evaporate the feedstock powder at very low pressure condition. Thin and dense YSZ and Al2O3 ceramic coatings with a mean thickness of 30-40 µm were successfully prepared by this process under a pressure 1 mbar. Optical emission spectroscopy was used to analyze the properties of the plasma jet. The phase composition and the microstructure of the coatings were determined by means of X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the YSZ coatings displayed a bimodal microstructure that was composed of the splats formed by the melted particles and a little amount of small particles from the vapor condensation. However, the vapor condensation cannot be observed in the Al2O3 coatings, and only the splats were found. The Vickers microhardness of both coatings were also evaluated.

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