QUO-VADIS, THERMAL SPRAY TECHNOLOGY

The question concerning the future of the technology of thermal spraying can only be answered by an interdisciplinary look to all technologies involved here. Based on the fact that more complex stresses in all areas of engineering force to get advantage of modern coating technologies, thermal spraying has to be regarded as one of the most universal, powerful, and flexible. The intention of this article is, by starting from what is possible today, to show the potential and describe new developments in thermal spraying. New spray process variants, spray coating materials and their use in different applications will be introduced as well as new ideas and innovations for tomorrow. Due to the high number of possible combinations of substrate and coating materials an enormous potential of thermal spray processes is offered which is increasingly used in industry.