Cleaning of steel surface from scale by compression plasma flows

The investigation of compression plasma flow treatment parameter effect (the number of pulses and the energy absorbed by the surface layer) on cleaning efficiency of the steel surface from scale (Fe2O3/Fe3O4/FeO) is the main aim of the research carried out in this work. The results of the phase and element composition, cross-section morphology investigations are presented. The findings showed that efficiency of plasma cleaning increased with the growth of the pulses number (1–3) and the energy absorbed by the surface layer (10–20 J/cm2 per pulse). Evaporation and cracking of scale due to the difference in coefficients of linear expansion of Fe2O3, Fe3O4, FeO and steel are supposed to be the main reasons for scale removal by plasma flow impact.