Pyrophoric Wafers by Pulsed Plasma Spray Forming

The Navy and other defense agencies have the need for high quality deposited materials with uniques and novel microstructures that exhibit pyrophoric activity. UTRON, Inc. proposes a new and innovative approach to producing coating structures utilizingPulsed Plasma Spary Forming Technology. This is based on a repetitively pulsed plasma jey generated by a capillary arc duscharge. the pulsed plasma jet will atomize the molten tips of metal feed wires. The smallatomized droplets will be deposited onsubstrates in an inert atomsphere to form the desired fine microstructure coating layer. UTRON, Inc. will develop a cost conpetitive Pulsed Plasma Spray Forming process to deposit unique and novel metallic coating structures. UTRON, Inc. will also performexperiments to determine the relationships between processing parametere and characteristics of several metal and alloy coating structures. At the end of the Phase II effort, UTRON, Inc. expects to have a fully operational Pulsed Plasma Spray Formingsystem operating at energies up to 4.5 kj per pilse and will be capable of repetitive operatiooon at a pulse rate of 60 Hz. The successful completion of this program will result in the identification of both technical and economic benefits foe metallicstructures used in defense applications. The technical benefits will be th result of increased reliability and quality of mission critical IR Decoy materials. The major economic benefit from this program is the development of a cost competitive processfor depositing pyrophoric structueres.