What are shock diamonds? Our robots know first hand
In the thermal spray industry, things are getting supersonically hot with robots. Just ask our friends at Praxair-TAFA.
In the late 1950s, when NASA needed to find a way to get their fledgling spacecraft back through the searing heat of reentry into Earth’s atmosphere they turned to Merle Thorpe, who was researching high temperature arc flame technology using an early DC plasma system he developed in Concord, New Hampshire. Thorpe helped solve the heat shield problem by creating a bond-coat layer that allowed the ceramic heat shield to stick to the capsule material.
Thorpe’s efforts in DC and Induction Plasma, along with the development of high-temperature, corrosion-resistant coatings, led to the creation of one of the world’s most influential thermal spray equipment companies: TAFA Incorporated.
Since that time the surface coatings industry and its demands have changed substantially, but through it all the basic purpose for applying high temperature metal, carbide or ceramic coatings to a substrate to make it tougher, more heat resistant, less susceptible to corrosion, and extend its lifespan has remained constant.
As a close partner of Praxair-TAFA, ABB Robotics has been along for much of the company’s recent developments and growth, with our robots helping them to take thermal spraying from a “black art” into a sophisticated and exacting science. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.