Coatings constitute an intrinsic part of the power generation hardware. Thousands of patents, papers and conference presentations address new coating types, new hardware and software, new process developments, new chemical compositions. A huge unpublished knowledge is stored in manufacturers 'Know How'. However, sometimes coatings are still considered as an "art" and there are fair reasons for that. The thermal spray is still not a 'plug and play' tool and the product quality largely depends on the deep understanding of process physics and hardware features, accumulated experience, engineer?s intuition and operator's training.
This book now deals with questions that are essential for a good performance of this "art":
- Is there a given process stability?
- What is the ratio of deterministic and stochastic in the coating process?
- Is there an inherent process capability for a given specification which cannot be improved?
- What is the right preventive maintenance strategy?
- Is there a chance to end up with coating process capabilities in the order of other manufacturing processes?
- What can be predicted and designed a-priori by physical modeling and off-line programming and what can be achieved by trials and errors only?
This book is not a pure scientific book. It is of most value for the engineer involved in design, processing and application of thermally sprayed coatings: To understand the capability and limitation of thermal spraying, to understand deposition efficiency—and the importance of maintenance and spare parts for quick change over of worn equipment, to use offline programming and real equipment in an optimum mix to end up with stable processes in production after shortest development time and in the end to achieve the final target in production: Process stability at minimum total cost.
