Suspension Spraying – The Potential of a New SprayTechnology

Suspension spraying is a new technology in the group of thermal spray processes. It makes use of suspensions instead of feedstock powders and is mainly applied in APS and HVOF processes. Apart from development of suitable suspensions, adaptation of the system equipment for feeding and injection into the plasma or flame is necessary. The advantages and application potential of suspensionsprayed coatings are multitudinous, one of the main aspects being the possibility of preparing coatings with thicknesses of a few µm and high bond strength. With suspension spraying, the technological gap in terms of achievable coating thicknesses between traditional spray coatings and other surface technologies is bridged. In addition, finely dispersed materials can be processed directly without the need for preparation of feedstock powders. Due to different phase compositions for well-known materials such as aluminum oxide and titanium oxide, new coating properties can also be obtained.