Abstract
Plasma spraying technique has been widely applied for the production of ceramic protection layer on metals that used in various hostile environments. However, all plasma-sprayed coatings have defects such as connected pores and unmelted particles, which deteriorate coating properties. To improve the properties of these coatings, various post-treatment methods have been reported such as laser irradiation, seal sintering with liquid alloys. Laser irradiation for sprayed coatings is more promising technique than other post-treatment methods due to its efficiency and simplicity. However, it is not easy to produce a uniformly irradiated layer by conventional laser treatment method as desired. To obtain a near-uniform beam intensity for practical laser irradiation, kaleidoscope was installed in a conventional YAG laser and plasma-laser hybrid spraying was tried. In this research, laser beam property of YAG laser equipped with a kaleidoscope and its effect on surface modification of plasma sprayed zirconia coatings was investigated.
