Investigations of some aspects of the spray process in a single wire arc plasma spray system using high speed camera

A high speed camera has been used to record and analyze the evolution as well as particle behavior in a single wire arc plasma spray torch. Commercially available systems (spray watch, DPV 2000, etc.) focus onto a small area in the spray jet. They are not designed for tracking a single particle from the torch to the substrate. Using high speed camera, individual particles were tracked and their velocities were measured at various distances from the spray torch. Particle velocity information at different distances from the nozzle of the torch is very important to decide correct substrate position for the good quality of coating. The analysis of the images has revealed the details of the process of arc attachment to wire, melting of the wire, and detachment of the molten mass from the tip. Images of the wire and the arc have been recorded for different wire feed rates, gas flow rates, and torch powers, to determine compatible wire feed rates. High speed imaging of particle trajectories has been used for particle velocity determination using time of flight method. It was observed that the ripple in the power supply of the torch leads to large variation of instantaneous power fed to the torch. This affects the velocity of the spray particles generated at different times within one cycle of the ripple. It is shown that the velocity of a spray particle depends on the instantaneous torch power at the time of its generation. This correlation was established by experimental evidence in this paper. Once the particles leave the plasma jet, their forward speeds were found to be more or less invariant beyond 40 mm up to 500 mm from the nozzle exit.