Indian researcher’s thermal spray coating technology grabs NASA’s eyes!

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) research scientist James L Smialek has written to Rajasthan-based researcher Dr. Satish Tailor for a new thermal spray coating technology developed by the researcher which is used for gas turbine engine in spacecraft.

“Smialek wrote to Tailor after the study was published in the journal Ceramics International and Thermal Spray Bulletin”, said SC Modi, the chairman of Jodhpur-based Metallizing Equipment Company (MEC).

While working at the MEC as a chief scientist, Dr. Tailor developed the control segmented Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ)- Plasma sprayed coating technology, which could reduce the thermal spray coating cost almost by 50 per cent according to him.

Dr. Tailor said, “In simple language, vertical cracks (segmentation) in the coating are beneficial for gas turbine engine application used in spacecraft. At present, researchers are developing such cracks through very expensive processes (in several crores) and cracks are generated during the coating deposition process, and crack generation is not controllable.”

Dr. Tailor said his research papers had been shared with NASA scientist who had written an email to him regarding this.

Scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CISR) are equally impressed with the new technology. Dr. RM Mohanty, chief scientist at the CSIR, said, “Indeed the outcome of the reported R&D presents an inexpensive solution for the superior survival of current YSZ thermal barrier coatings produced by atmospheric plasma sprayed (APS) technique, and has a potential of wider industrial/strategic acceptability.”

Mohanty said, “The new technology has an advantage over current, costly techniques such as SPS or EB- PVD deposited coatings which came into picture gradually, as the reported advantage in the research was not possible with conventional APS techniques.”

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He added, “The innovators should patent the process/equipment or both internationally for bringing benefits to the APS based business.”

Another scientist, Dr. RK Sampathy, of the DRDO, said, “The generation of vertical cracks holds great promise, if the research process can be industrially adopted in making a strain-tolerant coating then it will definitely be more economical compared to its expensive counter-parts techniques.”

Dr. Tailor is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Materials Science and Surface Engineering and chief editor of the Journal of Thermal Spray and Engineering. He is also a visiting young scientist at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST)in Russia.

Dr. Tailor has his Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering with specialization in plasma spray coatings from the Malaviya Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur. He has published over 25 national and international research papers on thermal spray technology in reputed journals.

(With PTI Inputs)