The global economy growth and active industrial development are limited, among other things, by the capabilities of existing technology. The potential for improving the functional characteristics of classical materials is practically exhausted, and the widespread use of new composite materials and high-enthalpy alloys is limited by the high cost and complexity of the technological process of their manufacture and processing. Knowledge of the materials physical-mechanical, thermophysical and chemical characteristics proves that the surface structural-phase state in many cases is crucial in the processes of wear, fracture, chemical and thermal destruction. Thus, the issue of developing technologies and equipment for modifying the surface layer and creating multicomponent coatings, including nanocomposite ones, is urgent. Current article presents the results of a study devoted to the creation of a facility for such coatings deposition by plasma spraying. One of the key elements of technological equipment for this method is a vacuum chamber, which is exposed to intense thermal stress during operation. Thus, the issue of designing a cooling system is relevant. To reduce the material and time resources at the design and experimental development, the temperature state of the chamber was simulated. It is shown that to ensure safe operation, it is advisable to use water cooling. The simulation results confirm the operability of the vacuum chamber cooling system under operating conditions. The following operating parameters were determined: the inlet pressure is 0.6 MPa, the water flow rate is 2 l/s, and the mass average temperature of the outlet water is about 40°C.

Keywords: plasma spraying, thermal state simulation, vacuum chamber, cooling system

Due to the constant increase in production, new structural materials development and growing rates of non-renewable resources consumption, the issue of increasing the machinery resource is urgent. Thus, it is necessary to develop technologies for spraying coatings that improve the functional characteristics of products, in particular, impact strength, microhardness, resistance to wear, corrosion and other environmental factors by modifying the surface layer structural-phase state. These technologies application is necessary in strategically important industries, such as machine tool manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding, chemical, energy, etc. This article is devoted to the facility development for multicomponent nanocomposite coatings sputtering. The design and commissioning of such a facility requires a high time and material resources investment. In this regard, it is necessary to use modern computer software systems that allow simulating multiphysics processes that take place during the facility operation. The simulation of the cathode-anode unit was carried out. Based on the simulation results it was shown that it is necessary to take into account the physical processes in the interelectrode region when designing the plasma spraying unit, since the resource of the cathode-electrode unit and the productivity of the sputtering process directly depend on the parameters of the discharge and the resulting plasma jet. Thus, high temperature and current density, as well as the arc spot abrupt movement, lead to increased wear and failure of the copper nozzles. The maximum values of the temperature and velocity of the plasma jet during spraying were 32000 K and 1800 m/s, respectively.

Keywords: plasma spraying, multicomponent nanocomposite coatings, multiphysics processes, mathematical modeling