Thermal Spray Processing: Process Diagnostics and Control by Artificial Intelligence

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Thermal spray is a family of processes used to manufacture high performance metallic and ceramic coatings that are used in a wide variety of industrial applications. They involve feeding the material in powder form into a flame or plasma that projects it in molten form at high speed against the part to be coated. Thermal spray coatings are particularly important in aerospace, energy and natural resources, key contributors to the Canadian economy. The research program that will be performed over the next five years with this NSERC Discovery Grant award will focus on an emerging and very powerful thermal spray technology named Suspension Plasma Spray (SPS). In SPS, the ceramic coating material is applied in the form of micron- and submicron-size particles. This allows the microstructure of the coatings, and hence their thermal, electric and physical characteristics, to be highly customized to meet very specific and diverse end-user requirements including specific “functionality”. It thus has the potential to substantially increase the use and value of thermal spray. Thermal spray is an inherently complex process, and SPS has two characteristics that distinguish it from current more mature processes; the very small particle size and the fact that the particles are injected when suspended in a liquid. This research program will develop the fundamental knowledge about the various phases of the SPS process to allow precise and reliable tailoring and control of the process to produce highly customized coating microstructures. This involves a combination of theoretical and experimental research, the latter using modern equipment in the thermal spray laboratory at Concordia University and electron microscopes at Concordia and other local universities. The knowledge generated will allow the development of customised sensors that will be used in industrial scale applications. For the first time, modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques will be used to tailor the SPS coating microstructure and properties with the objective of implementing such a control strategy in industry. A culturally and gender diverse group of students and other Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) will be directly involved in both theoretical and practical research and given specific responsibilities under the supervision of three professors. Students will also attend national and international conferences to present their work, and be given “soft skills” training, preparing them for future careers. SPS has the potential to make major contributions to the Canadian economy, and to sustainability and the environment. Applications include higher performing thermal and environmental barrier coatings for aircraft engines, critical to reducing fuel consumption and environmental impact of passenger aircraft; membranes for applications such as water purification; separation of gasses including carbon dioxide; and coatings for hydrogen electrolysis.