Hey everyone, Thermal Spray
If you’ve been in the power generation space for more than a minute, you know how brutal it is on equipment. Turbines, boilers, pipelines—all that stuff’s constantly dealing with extreme heat, corrosion, wear, and whatever the environment throws at it. I’m part of a thermal spray supplier that’s been in this game for years, and let me tell you, thermal spray isn’t some fancy, out-of-the-blue tech. It’s the unsung hero keeping power plants running when they’d otherwise grind to a halt. Today I want to break down exactly how we use it in power generation, because it’s way more than just “spraying stuff on metal.”
First, let’s keep it simple: thermal spray is a process where you heat material (could be metal, ceramic, alloy, even a mix) until it’s molten or semi-molten, then blast it at super high speed onto a part. That builds up a coating that’s way tougher than the base metal alone. For power plants, that translates to fixing two of their biggest headaches: downtime and maintenance costs. A single turbine outage can cost a plant hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, so anything that keeps parts lasting longer? It’s a game-changer.
Let’s start with gas turbines—those are the workhorses for both natural gas plants and peaker plants that kick in during high demand. The hot section of a gas turbine is where the action’s at: combustion liners, first-stage turbine blades, vanes. Those parts sit in gas that’s pushing 1,500°C (2,700°F). Without coatings, they’d melt or corrode in weeks. Here’s where two big thermal spray coatings come in: high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) sprayed metal alloys, and air plasma spray (APS) ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs).
Wait, let’s talk TBCs first. APS-sprayed yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is the go-to here. It’s a porous ceramic that acts like insulation—adds a 100-150°C temperature drop to the metal part underneath. That lets turbine operators run the engine hotter, which boosts efficiency and cuts fuel use. For reference, a 1% gain in gas turbine efficiency is worth millions a year for a big plant. But YSZ isn’t just for heat; we also bond a thin bond coat (usually a MCrAlY alloy—M for metal, Cr for chromium, Al for aluminum, Y for yttrium) under the TBC. That bond coat prevents corrosion from hot gases, keeps the ceramic from flaking off, and stops oxidation of the base superalloy blade.
Then there’s the compressor section of gas turbines. Compressor blades spin at hundreds of mph, sucking in air that’s full of dust, salt, and moisture. Those particles cause erosion—tiny chips that add up over time, messing up the blade shape and reducing aerodynamics. That’s where HVOF coatings like chromium carbide-nickel chromium (CrC-NiCr) come in. HVOF sprays are faster than APS, so the coating is denser, tougher, and way better at withstanding particle impact. We’ve seen compressor blades with HVOF coatings last 3-4 times longer than uncoated ones. That means fewer blade replacements, less downtime for inspections, and steady performance. I remember a job last year with a plant in the Midwest—their compressor blades were wearing out every 18 months. We sprayed CrC-NiCr on ’em, and two years later, they still had no major erosion. They saved over $200k just in blade replacement costs that first year.
Now, let’s switch to steam turbines, which are the backbone of coal, nuclear, and combined-cycle plants. Steam turbines deal with a different set of issues: wet steam, high-pressure steam, and wear from moisture droplets. Those droplets act like tiny bullets, hitting the turbine blades (especially the last-stage ones, which are huge and spin slow enough that water erosion is brutal). I’ve seen last-stage blades with pitting so bad they had to be replaced in two years. What do we use here? Again, HVOF coatings, but sometimes we use wire arc spray (WAS) for bigger, thicker parts. WAS is cheaper for large-scale applications, since it uses wire feedstock instead of powder, and it builds up a thicker coating. For steam turbine blades, we often apply cobalt-based alloys or even stainless steel HVOF coatings. The result? The blades can handle wet steam for 5+ years without pitting, instead of 1-2. Another win: we also spray the turbine’s inner casings with ceramic or metallic coatings to resist corrosion from condensate, which is super acidic in many coal plants.
Don’t sleep on boilers, either. Boilers generate steam in fossil fuel and biomass plants, and their tubes are exposed to a mix of things: high-temperature combustion gases, slag (that gunk that forms when fuel burns), and corrosion from flue gases. Biomass plants especially have issues—their fuel is full of alkali metals (like potassium and sodium) that cause hot corrosion on boiler tubes. We use two main thermal spray coatings here for boilers: chromia-alumina ceramic coatings for wear from slag, and MCrAlY or iron-aluminum (FeAl) coatings for hot corrosion. FeAl is a big one lately— it’s cheaper than MCrAlY, and it resist alkali corrosion way better than plain steel. I worked with a biomass plant in the Southeast that was replacing boiler tubes every 12 months due to alkali corrosion. We sprayed FeAl coatings on their water-wall tubes, and now those tubes are going 3 years between replacements. That’s a massive cut in maintenance time, since boiler tube replacements mean taking the whole plant offline for days.
Pipelines and power plant piping are another area where thermal spray saves the day. Power plants move all sorts of fluids—high-pressure steam, water for cooling, fuel, even chemicals for treatment. Those pipes corrode, especially if they’re in harsh environments like coastal areas (salt air) or areas with aggressive cooling water. Thermal spray coatings here are usually zinc or aluminum for cathodic protection—wait, let me explain that simply. Zinc is more reactive than steel, so when you spray it on a pipe, it sacrifices itself to corrode instead of the steel underneath. For pipes that carry treated water, we also use epoxy or polymer reinforced thermal spray coatings to resist abrasion from sand or sediment. A coastal power plant I do work with had a 10-mile pipe for cooling water that was corroding through in 5 years. We sprayed a combination of aluminum and a protective topcoat, and now the pipe’s going strong after 7 years. No leaks, no replacements, no emergency shutdowns.
Wait, there’s also a newer area we’re getting into: hydrogen power generation. More and more plants are switching to hydrogen for lower emissions, but hydrogen is tricky—it causes embrittlement in steel, and when you burn hydrogen, the flue gas is hot and full of water vapor. We’ve already started testing thermal spray coatings for hydrogen storage tanks and pipeline components, as well as combustion liners for hydrogen-fueled turbines. The MCrAlY coatings we use for natural gas turbines work, but we’re tweaking them to handle the extra heat and moisture from hydrogen combustion. It’s exciting stuff—thermal spray is adapting to the new energy landscape, not just sticking to old plants.
Let me be real here—thermal spray isn’t perfect. It requires skilled applicators to get the coating thickness right, and if the surface isn’t prepped properly (we sandblast or grit-blast the parts to make sure the coating sticks), the whole thing will flake off. That’s why having a reliable supplier matters—we don’t cut corners on surface prep, and we use the right spray method for each part. A lot of plants try to do thermal spray in-house, but they end up messing up because they don’t have the right equipment or expertise. We’re not just here to spray a coating—we do inspections, advise on which coating works for your specific equipment, and even help with post-spray testing to make sure the coating is holding up.
At the end of the day, every power generation company’s goal is the same: keep the plant running as long as possible, for as little money as possible, without sacrificing efficiency. Thermal spray delivers that. It extends part life, cuts fuel costs by letting you run equipment hotter, reduces downtime, and lowers maintenance expenses. We’ve seen plants go from 2 major outages a year from part failure to zero, just by adding thermal spray coatings to their key components.
If you’re dealing with frequent turbine blade replacements, boiler tube leaks, steam erosion, or pipeline corrosion, don’t just keep throwing money at parts that wear out. Hit us up to talk through your issues—we can assess your equipment, suggest the right coatings, and help you come up with a plan to cut costs and keep your plant online. No jargon, no hidden fees, just straightforward advice from people who’ve been doing this for power generation for years.
Tungsten Products References:
- Singh, H., & Silverman, J. (2020). Thermal spray coatings for power generation: A review of applications and performance. Journal of Thermal Spray Technology, 29(7), 1547-1572.
- Allen, R., et al. (2018). Erosion and corrosion protection in steam turbines using HVOF coatings. Proceedings of the International Conference on Power Engineering, 412-419.
- Zhang, L., et al. (2022). Advanced thermal spray coatings for hydrogen-fired gas turbines. Surface and Coatings Technology, 442, 128567.
- EPA. (2021). Best Practices for Thermal Spray Applications in Fossil Power Plants. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air and Radiation.
Foshan Jiafengrui New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.
We are one of the most professional thermal spray manufacturers and suppliers in China, also support customized service. Please feel free to wholesale high quality thermal spray in stock here from our factory. Welcome to view our website for more information.
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