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Suspension and solution precursor (SSP) thermal spraying

Suspension and solution precursor thermal spraying is an emerging technology which utilises liquid feedstock containing sub-micrometre and nanoparticles. In conventional thermal spraying there are limitations to decreasing coating thickness significantly below ~30 µm and coating surface roughness (Ra) below 5 µm because the individual splats are too coarse. In many applications, a thin and smooth surface layer is required. SSP was developed to circumvent these problems. In SSP HVOF the suspension is directly injected in the combustion chamber and the particles are accelerated to >500 m/s and heated in the spray plume. SSP can potentially bridge the gap between the conventional thin film (~ 5 µm) deposition techniques and traditional thermal spraying (~ 250 µm).

Unique microstructural features

A wear track on SSP sprayed alumina coating (against Si3N4 counter-body) showing excellent wear performance