Characteristics and requirements of thermal spray materials

       As the original material of the coating, thermal spray material determines the physical and chemical properties of the coating to a large extent. As a process material, thermal spraying material must meet the requirements of thermal spraying process. Therefore, in the application and development of thermal spray technology, it is closely linked with thermal spray materials and promotes each other.



      The notable features of thermal spray materials are their versatility and compoundability. All solid materials that are non-volatile, non-sublimating, non-decomposing, non-crystalline, and meltable at high temperature can be used for spraying, including a wide variety of metals, ceramics, plastics, etc. Materials with different properties can also be combined into composite materials for spraying in different ways to obtain coatings with good comprehensive properties or special functions. Due to the development of composite materials, the variety of spray materials can be increased without limit.

      Thermal spraying materials should meet the functional requirements of the coating and the thermal spraying process. For functional requirements, the material should have physical and chemical properties suitable for the use environment, limit the content of impurities that are not conducive to the quality of the coating and not be polluted, so that the coating can play the role of protection, strengthening or special functions. For technical requirements, the material should have thermal stability, the thermal expansion coefficient should be as close as possible to that of the material, the wire diameter or powder particle size should be drawn in a more precise range, and it should have good transportability.