Thermal spray in general, plasma spray in particular, is a highly complex process with numerous interacting variables associated with generation of the spray stream, deposit formation dynamics, and the resultant property linkages. Compounding this variability further are both the spatial (different booths and different locations) and temporal (process start-stops, hardware degradation, operator etc.) effects. As such, an understanding of process and coating consistency and variability offers significant challenges. Recent scientific advances as well as measurement tools have enabled elucidation of the intrinsic variabilities associated with each of the process sub-steps; however, integrated understanding of the system level reliability is still lacking. This article seeks an integrated assessment of process and coating reliability through systematic measurements of variabilities during each stage of the process subjected to different operating parameters. Through critical examination of first-order process maps, the influence of process parameters on particle state is reviewed for repeated spray runs with a single parameter effect as well as across a spectrum of process parameters. In addition, influence of these changes on design-relevant coating properties were obtained for plasma-sprayed zirconia through recourse to novel in situ and ex situ substrate curvature measurements. Finally, the implications of such integrated reliability studies have been explored through collaborative experiments conducted in the industrial sites.
