Control of jet convergence in wire arc spray systems

摘要

The wire arc spray process offers several features which make it attractive for a wide variety of applications. In particular, the use of wires as the deposition material offers good process economy and high deposition rates. The applications range from thick coatings on tools and dies for plastic injection molding to thin coatings for circuit boards. One problem with this coating process is the relatively poor control over the spray pattern which leads frequently to significant overspray and requires extensive masking. Improved control over the droplet trajectories will allow the use of this coating method in a number of applications which require small feature deposition.