Super-Thin Ceramic Coating for Engines

Technology developed at NASA's Glenn Research Center creates super thin ceramic coatings on engine components. The Plasma Spray Physical Vapor Deposition (PS-PVD) rig uses a powerful plasma flame to vaporize ceramic powder, which condenses onto the component and forms a uniform ceramic coating. Bryan Harder, of the Durability and Protective Coatings Group and the lead for the PS-PVD, demonstrates the technology.

Transcript

00:00:01 hi I'm Brian Harter from the durability and protective Coatings group behind me is the plasma spray physical vapor deposition rig here at Nasa Glen Research Center this rig allows us to both melt and vaporize ceramic material to protect both metal and ceramic engine components these new engine components will allow us to create the next generation of gas turban engine

00:00:22 technology during a run process our samples are mounted to a metallic plate which is then loaded on our sample mounting arm the chamber is closed and the entire system is evacuated to a pressure of one tour which is 1760 of atmosphere the plasma is then created from the torch which extends the length of the chamber the temperature of this

00:00:44 flame can reach 6 to 10,000 Kelvin which both melts and vaporize our ceramic material the vaporized material condenses onto the target substrates and the coating is created after the run the chamber is brought back up to pressure and the samples are removed for testing so after the deposition is complete we're left with a nice thin layer of ceramic on our

00:01:07 samples these can now be removed from the plate and submitted for testing thanks for stopping by