| abstract |
A process for the thermal deposition coating of a workpiece, said process comprising the steps of: (c) thermally depositing a coating on a metallic surface of a workpiece from a deposition head wherein at least one condition selected from the group of: coating deposition rate onto said surface, relative motion between the surface and said deposition head, and cryogenic coolant application rate onto said workpiece is controllable; (d) substantially simultaneously measuring temperatures at a plurality of locations over the metallic surface of the workpiece; (c) determining an average temperature of the temperatures measured in step (b); (d) comparing the average temperature to a preselected minimum temperature and a preselected maximum temperature for the workpiece; and (e) adjusting at least one of the controllable conditions if said average temperature is not between the preselected minimum temperature and the preselected maximum temperature for the workpiece. Standard deviations of all temperature readings and controlling the relative motion speed between the thermal coating deposition head and the workpiece provide another improvement for obtaining temperature uniformity over the workpiece surface. |