Laser remelting of plasma sprayed zirconia thermal barrier coatings

Coatings of partially stabilised zirconia are currently used as thermal barrier coatings in gas turbines and diesel engines. Zirconia coatings are usually processed via plasma spraying a well-established and relatively cheap technique. Thermal barrier coatings consist of 0.5 to 1 mm of porous ceramic bonded to the metallic substrate by a bond-coat. High porosity in the ceramic coating assure a good thermal behaviour but increases the chances for corrosion or chemical attack of the bond-coat and coating detach by delamination processes. The as sprayed surface is rough and sensitive to erosion. In the present work we obtained the processing conditions for laser remelting of Y-PSZ coatings deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying technique on Ni-alloys. A simple model accounts for the onset melting energy and its dependence with the processing speed. The remelted film is dense and with smooth surface and well bonded to the underlying porous coat.