Thermal Spray Cooling Technology

Thermal Spray
Cooling Technology
Flexible solution. Proven results.
The nozzle for Air Products thermal
spray cooling technology can be
either statically mounted, or mounted
onto the spray guns robotic arm.
During your spray application, the
cryogenic vapour jet follows the
spray plume to maintain the part’s
temperature within the specified
range, with the advanced system.
Air Products has drawn upon its 50+ years’ experience
in gas application technologies to develop solutions to
help you succeed.
“A desire to respect the environment,
and make savings on production
time and costs are the reasons
behind our collaboration with
Air Products on Thermal Spray
Cooling.”
Part temperature is traditionally maintained using forced air cooling –
combined with inter-pass breaks – allowing parts to cool before the next
layer is applied, or by spraying with carbon dioxide. Either method, however,
can lead to reduced productivity, wasted feed powder and process gases or,
in the case of cooling with carbon dioxide, the formation of micro cracks.
Today, many of these common problems, including the the need for cooling
breaks are easily overcome thanks to Air Products’ thermal spray cooling
technology’s highly efficient temperature control system.
Director General, Metrasur
(Key partner to the aerospace industry)
A key challenge in thermal spray applications is the need to keep parts
within a tightly set temperature range; failure to do so can result in off-spec
products as a result of over heating or over cooling. This will impact upon
coating adhesion, substrate and coating hardness, fatigue life, corrosion
resistance and dimensional tolerances.
Temperatures Displayed
instant average, ˚F, for traditional
air cooling
standard deviation, ˚F, for traditional
air cooling
Figure 1
Traditional Air Cooling vs. Air Products’ Thermal Spray Cooling Technology for
Coatings Deposited in 11 Spray Passes
250°F
(121°C)
2a
instant average, ˚F, for Air Products’
thermal spray cooling technology
200°F
(93°C)
standard deviation, ˚F, for Air Products’
thermal spray cooling technology
4a
5a
6a
7a
8a
9a
10a
11a
10a
11a
1a
air cooling
cryogenic cooling
Patented technology
Air Products’ thermal spray cooling
technology uses cryogenic nitrogen
vapor and in-flight evaporating
nitrogen aerosol spray (-195°C)
for high quality thermal sprayed
coatings – including tungsten
carbide cobalt – faster and at a lower
cost than with traditional cooling
methods. Our novel technology can
cool your parts twice as fast than
you can with shop air alone. Plus,
with our advanced system, you can
maintain part temperature within a
+/- 10°C range during your thermal
spray coating application (see Figure
1). The result is lower costs due to
the elimination of inter-pass cooling
breaks, reduction in powder and gas
waste, and better utilisation of the
thermal spray equipment and booth.
Options to meet your needs
Advanced Thermal Spray Cooling
System
Air Products’ advanced thermal
spray cooling system takes process
control to a new level. The system
uses liquid and gaseous nitrogen as
the cooling media. The cooling nozzle
is either static mounted, or mounted
on the robotic arm so it trails behind
the spray gun to cool the part during
the spraying process. Through the
closed-loop temperature feedback
system, you can achieve optimal part
cooling and maintain the coating
temperature within a user-defined
temperature range. Our temperature
monitoring and control software
uses proprietary cooling algorithms
to determine the appropriate cooling
intensity based on the thermal
Temperature, F (˚C)
a
c
3a
5c 6c 7c 8c 9c 10c
3c 4c
11c
2c
1c
150°F
(66°C)
Spray from HVOF gun is directed
away from the part to allow it to cool
during air-cooled coating process.
100°F
(38°C)
number of spray passes
2a
50°F
(10°C)
3a
4a
5a
6a
7a
8a
9a
1a
0
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
36
40
Spraying Time, Minutes
Air Products’ novel thermal spray cooling technology delivers exceptional results. This graph
shows actual process data for spraying aircraft landing gear with traditional air cooling
compared to our nitrogen cryogenic vapor cooling system. With the Air Products thermal
spray cooling technology, the part’s temperature was maintained within a much tighter
range during the spray operation. In addition, it halved the spraying time and the amount of
powder and process gases consumed—plus improved productivity.
imaging camera and/or infrared
sensor inputs. Plus, multiple cooling
lines provide set-up flexibility for
parts with complex geometry. The
advanced cooling system offers:
–Variable cooling intensity based
on actual temperatures and userdefined inputs
–Flexible temperature signal
acquisition through infrared
sensors and/or a thermal imaging
camera
–Real-time temperature display
–Data and image storage
–Data retrieval capabilities for
quality control post-inspection
–Unrestricted cooling configuration
and operating mode selection
(liquid nitrogen, gaseous nitrogen,
forced air, and hybrid)
These features provide real-time
vital characteristics of the coating
process, such as instant and timeaveraged temperature of the part,
temperature distribution in various
part areas, and standard deviation of
accumulated thermal data. This data
can be tracked, recorded and stored
for audit purposes. Our advanced
system provides all the features of
our standard system, with the added
benefit of added range of control,
monitoring and data collection
required for your critical spray
operations.
Standard Thermal Spray Cooling
System
Air Products’ standard thermal
spray cooling system uses liquid
and gaseous nitrogen as the cooling
media. The cooling nozzle can be
static mounted, or mounted on the
robotic arm, trailing the spray gun.
The system delivers a predetermined
mixture of liquid nitrogen vapor
and gaseous nitrogen based on
operator input. Your part cooling
can be optimised by selecting any of
the five user-defined cooling modes,
ranging from room temperature
nitrogen gas to 100% cryogenic
Table 1
Thermal Spray Cooling System Comparison
Features
Advanced System
Compatible with existing thermal spray systems
Easily installed on robotic arms for precision cooling Variable cooling modes – Precision spot cooling
– Diffuse, wide-area cooling
Automatically controlled by preset commands
(minimal operator input)
High-efficiency, cost-effective liquid nitrogen usage
Standard System
Monitoring System
Options:
Infrared sensors or 2D thermal imaging system
Up to 5 additional liquid nitrogen hoses per unit for additional cooling
Temperature calibration system
Data management system—ideal for quality assurance purposes
Numerous, cost-effective nitrogen supply options available worldwide
liquid nitrogen. This system provides
flexibility in selecting a desired
cooling capacity for the part you’re
spraying, in a less sophisticated
control package than our advanced
system.
Temperature monitoring of
thermal spray process
When liquid nitrogen cooling is
not required but temperature
monitoring of the spraying process
is, Air Products’ thermal spray
monitoring system is a valuable
tool. This system can monitor and
record data from measurable inputs
during the thermal spray process
– especially substrate temperature
monitoring. The monitoring
system provides temperature
signal acquisition through infrared
sensors and/or thermal imaging
cameras, real-time thermal data
display, thermal data and image
storage, and data archiving
playback for quality control postinspection. While cooling is not
provided with the monitoring
system, you can integrate cooling
modules at a future date if you
want to add that option.
Real Results
Setup Savings:
Our system can eliminate the need
Air Products’ advanced thermal spray for traditional, rigid protective masking that must be rugged and resiscooling technology allowed a major
tant to high temperatures. With our
aircraft maintenance, repair, and
technology, you can use inexpensive,
overhaul facility to halve the spraying time, the amount of powder and flexible masking tapes that are easy
process gases consumed in the coat- to apply and remove, resulting in
radically reduced setup and cleaning
ing of its aircraft landing gear. They
times. This is a result of cryogenic
used high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF)
nitrogen’s unique ability to cool the
to apply tungsten carbide cobalt
masking tape quickly, preventing its
chrome (WC-CoCr).
thermal breakdown.
The cryogenic vapor cooling system
reduced the thermal gradients that
are normally created during the
conventional spray operation. Based
on microstructural and compositional analysis, microporosity, bond
strength, hardness, and as-sprayed
roughness measurements, the quality of the cryogenically vapor-cooled
WC-CoCr coatings was as good as
or better than the quality of the aircooled coatings.
Consumable Savings:
With the advanced thermal spray cooling
technology system you can monitor your
spray operation from the control room. The
temperature profile for your operation will
be displayed on your computer screen and
captured for future analysis, playback and
audits.
For more information:
To learn more about our cooling
technology and how it can help your
thermal spray application, contact
your local Air Products office:
Belgique/België
Air Products NV/SA
T 02 255 28 95
E beinfo@airproducts.com
airproducts.be
airproducts.be/fr
Česká Republika
AIR PRODUCTS spol. s r.o.
T 800 100 700
E infocz@airproducts.com
airproducts.cz
Deutschland
Air Products GmbH
T +49 (0) 234 6105 6300
F +49 (0) 234 6105 6371
E apginfo@airproducts.com
airproducts.de
España
Carburos Metálicos, S.A.
T 902 13 02 02
E oferta@carburos.com
carburos.com
France
Air Products SAS
T 0800 480 030
E frinfo@airproducts.com
airproducts.fr
Nederland
Air Products Nederland BV
T 020-435 3535
E nlinfo@airproducts.com
airproducts.nl
Polska
Air Products Sp. z o.o.
T 0 801 08 11 22
E infopl@airproducts.com
airproducts.com.pl
Portugal
GASIN Gases Industriais, S.A.
T 229 998 300
E proposta@gasin.com
gasin.com
Slovenská Republika
Air Products Slovakia, s.r.o.
T 0800 100 700
E infosk@airproducts.com
airproducts.sk
United Kingdom
Air Products PLC
T 0800 389 0202
E apukinfo@airproducts.co.uk
airproducts.co.uk
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© Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., 2013 (EU002639) 330-10-009-EN-May13

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