• Applications
  • Wear Resistant Coatings
  • Medical Device Coatings
  • Food Processing Equipment Coatings, FDA Approved
  • Coatings for Carbon Fiber Composites
  • Hard Chrome Replacement
  • Corrosion Protection
  • Dielectric Coatings
  • Electrically Conductive
  • Thermal Barrier
  • EMI/RFI Shielding
• Complete Components
• Thermal Spray Processes
  • Plasma Spray
  • HVOF
  • Flame Spray
  • Electric Arc Spray
  • Cold Spray
• Post-Spray Capabilities
• Industries
• Materials
• Problem Solving & Development
• Quality
• Environment
• Associations
• Company News

Thermal Spray Materials

Just like the diversity of the technologies of thermal spray, the types of materials that can be used to produce coatings, and the materials onto which coatings can be deposited, are very wide in variety. At Thermal Spray Technologies we like to use the philosophy that the imagination is the only limitation to what can be produced using thermal spray.

Coating Materials

Almost all metals can be thermal sprayed to produce coatings. Many plastics can also be thermal sprayed, especially plastics that have a good melting range. With some of the thermal spray processes capable of generating temperatures as high as 30,000 °F, (> 16,500 °C) very high melting point materials can be thermal sprayed such as oxide ceramics. In general, if a material melts there is a very good chance the material can be used to create a thermal spray coating. Even materials that sublime in many cases can be used in thermal spray coatings. One common method to produce a coating with a material that sublimes is to combine it with a material that does melt. The material that melts will act like a cement when the two materials deposit together to create a composite coating.

Materials That can be Coated

Even though thermal spray processes are capable of producing very high temperatures, the energy of the processes can have minimal effects on the materials being coated. The core of a process' energy is within or just outside of the thermal spray device. Since components being coated are typically a few to several inches from the thermal spray device the component absorbs little energy from the process. In some cases the source of the energy that the component has to adsorb is the energy in the individual droplets being deposited. These droplets may be at very high temperatures when they deposit but because they are very small, their overall thermal energy content is low. These characteristics make it possible to coat heat sensitive materials such as carbon fiber composites, plastics, thin metals, and even paper.

Thermal spray metal coated business card