Effect of in-flight particle properties on deposition of air plasma sprayed forsterite

Properties of forsterite coatings deposited by two DC-arc plasma spray guns were studied. The guns generate different types and shapes of plasma jets, resulting in different particle/plasma interactions and different microstructures in the coatings due to the different in-flight particle histories. The particle histories are characterized by cross-sectional maps of the plasma jet showing particle temperature, velocity, and particle size distributions and the number of particles correlated with the coating microstructures.