Monitoring Technology for Quality Improvements and Increased Operational Performance
The objective of the study was to develop next-generation on-line monitoring that can detect deviations from the optimum spraying conditions at an early stage, enabling prompt correction and greatly reducing product rejections and re-coating compared to the inadequate post-spray quality check.
Airborne acoustic emissions monitoring has shown promise as a novel on-line, non-destructive monitoring technology for the low-temperature thermal spray coating process. Although still in the prototype phase, the developed monitoring system can give the thermal spray operator warning of excessive nozzle wear, blocked or leaky gas lines, inappropriate gas flow rates and unintentionally reduced powder feed rate. Continued research into this method of process monitoring will surely prove worthwhile to the thermal spray industry and others.