Detection of melting temperatures and sources of errors using two-color pyrometry during in-flight measurements of atmospheric plasma-sprayed particles

Growing demands on the quality of plasma-sprayed coatings require reliable methods to monitor and optimize the spraying processes. As the coating microstructures are dependent on the characteristics of the powder feedstock, particle in-flight diagnostics is of great importance. In particular, the melting status of the particles is critical in this regard. Thus, the accurate determination of the particle temperature is necessary. In-flight particle temperature measurements during atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) of tungsten, molybdenum, and yttria-stabilized zirconia by two-color pyrometry were analyzed statistically. The diagnostic tool applied is the DPV-2000 (Tecnar). The particle temperature distributions allow for assessment of the melting status of the particles as well as the identification of the melting temperature and particle fractions in the molten and solidification state. Furthermore, the relevant systematic and material-dependent sources for measurement errors using two-color pyrometry were investigated. Their influence was carefully estimated and corrected. As long as there are reliable data available on the emissivity of the powder material, good agreement between the corrected measured melting temperatures and the reference data can be expected.