Abstract
The development of the plasma transferred arc coating process was directed towards reducing the cost of corrosion and wear resistant parts. Regular steel parts with an appropriate PTA coating can exhibit superior corrosion and wear behavior even compared to specialty alloys. The process is significantly different from the other coating processes as the substrate is part of the electrical circuit that delivers the power for the coating process. The substrate in most of the cases serves as the anode of the arc transferred from the torch, and only sometimes as the cathode. Thus it must consist of an electrically conducting material. First equipment and operating parameters are described with the coating materials used and the corresponding applications. Then the process characterization is presented with the temperature distributions in the arc and arc voltages, heat flux to substrate and process modeling. The different process modifications and adaptations are described, especially with the influence of the pilot arc, the nitriding of coating, the modulation of deposition parameters, the PTA combination with tape casting and the PTA deposition with a negative work piece polarity. Examples of applications are at last presented, especially against wear and abrasive wear, against wear and corrosion, refurbishing worn parts and finally free standing shape fabrication
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Abbreviations
- FTC:
-
Fused tungsten carbide
- PTA:
-
Plasma-transferred arc
- SAW:
-
Submerged arc welding
- slm:
-
Standard liters per minute
- TIG, MIG:
-
Tungsten inert gas welding or metal inert gas welding, respectively
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Nomenclature
Nomenclature
- A conv :
-
The area over which the convective heat transfer takes place (m2)
- D :
-
Arc attachment spot diameter (m)
- e :
-
Electronic charge (A s)
- E :
-
Electric field (V/m)
- E i :
-
Ionization potential of the plasma gas (V)
- I :
-
Arc current (A)
- j e :
-
Electron current density (A/m2)
- j i :
-
The ion current density (A/m2)
- k :
-
Thermal conductivity of electrons (W/m K)
- k :
-
“Constriction parameter” (cm−2)
- k B :
-
Boltzmann constant (1.38 × 10−23 J/K)
- k h :
-
Thermal conductivity of heavy species (W/m K)
- p :
-
Melted layer thickness (m)
- q a :
-
Anode heat flux (W/m2)
- q e :
-
Electron enthalpy flux (W/m2)
- q m :
-
Maximum heat flux for a given condition (W/m2)
- q(r):
-
Substrate heat flux (W/m2)
- Q sub :
-
Total heat transfer to the substrate (W)
- r :
-
Radial coordinate (m)
- r e :
-
Arc radius (radius of current path) (m)
- T e :
-
Electron temperature (K)
- T h :
-
Heavy species temperature (K)
- v :
-
Plasma velocity (m/s)
- v :
-
Traverse velocity of the torch (m/s)
- V :
-
Arc voltage (V)
- V an :
-
The anode fall voltage (V)
- α :
-
Fraction of the electrical power transferred to the anode
- Φ a :
-
Work function of the anode material (V)
- ρ :
-
Mass density of the plasma (kg/m3)
- \( {\overline{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{ar}} \) :
-
Electrical conductivity of argon averaged over the arc cross section (mho/m)
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Fauchais, P.L., Heberlein, J.V.R., Boulos, M.I. (2014). Plasma-Transferred Arc. In: Thermal Spray Fundamentals. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-68991-3_10
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