Is the Investment in an HVAF Upgrade Worthwhile if I Already Have an HVOF Installation?

Kermetico HVAF technology has many advantages over HVOF. But is the Investment in an HVAF Upgrade Worthwhile if one Already Has an HVOF Installation? It depends.

If you don’t have any HVOF competitors around and your HVOF workload is less than 50% –  this is probably not the best time to upgrade your capabilities.

But if you have a fierce rivalry or thinking of buying an additional system – you should consider purchasing HVAF equipment as soon as possible. Why?

Kermetico HVAF Benefits for Business

1. Buy and use fewer systems, investing four times less in additional equipment for your thermal spray shop. Each Kermetico gun sprays five times faster than HVOF, and there is an option to switch to an ID or a hand-held gun with the same system.
2. You will recover your investment in a Kermetico HVAF system while depositing the second ton of WCCoCr. How?
   • The spray rate is up to 33 kg/hour with the deposition efficiency higher than 60%; fewer work hours means fewer hours to pay for, and with our system, you need to spray just a fraction of the HVOF spray time
   • You do not need oxygen – just compressed air, which costs 10 times less
   • Easy-to-change specialized guns allow spraying each part in the most efficient way
   • Cost of spare parts is 1/10 of HVOF for the same work
   • You will save $160 USD per 1 kg (2,2 lbs.) of deposited powder, or $160,000 per metric ton (we will be glad to provide our calculations by request)
3. Eliminate the blasting room – blast and spray with one setup to reduce manufacturing time, improve quality and reduce blast media consumption by a factor of 100.
4. Reduce as-sprayed coating thickness and grinding time due to the low roughness of the as-sprayed coating.

Shop-Floor Benefits of HVAF

Kermetico HVAF systems are designed by sprayers for sprayers:

• Use existing HVOF infrastructure (you will probably need to upgrade a compressor if yours has a low output)
• User-friendly controls, same system for many guns → you will complete your learning curve in a couple of weeks, less if you have HVOF experience
• High technological efficiency → it is really hard to make a poor coating
• Axial powder delivery + simple design→ long-lasting, easy to change spare parts
• Hardness deviation 6% → fewer quality control issues
• No vapors from the spraying powder → no health hazards

If you have to work with restrictive specifications – consider our Convertible HVOF + HVAF system.

HVAF Coating Quality

A Comparison of HVAF WCCoCr Coatings with HVOF and Ultra-HVOF Specimens

We have collected many compelling comparisons of HVAF vs. HVOF and Kermetico Technical presentation, so if you need them – go here.

Kermetico HVAF and HVOF Thermal Spray Coating Equipment

Kermetico designs and manufactures three families of HVAF thermal spray equipment.

• Convertible HVOF and HVAF equipment:
  • C7 – an HVAF/HVOF gun for large parts
  • C6 – a general purpose HVAF-HVOF gun
  • CID – an HVAF&HVOF gun to spray internal diameters 80 mm (3.15″) and larger

  Multi-purpose HVAF AK systems, with a variety of spray guns:

  • AK7 – a high-power gun for the thermal spray of large parts
  • AK6 – a gun to spray tungsten and chromium carbide onto a balanced mix of parts
  • AK5 – a compact gun to spray smaller parts, thin walls and complex surfaces
  • AK-ID – an 80 mm (3.15”) and larger internal diameter spray gun
  • AK-IDR – a rotating ID gun to spray 4” (100 mm) and larger bores
  • AK-HH – a handheld gun for on-site coating

  Specialized equipment:

  • SL – a specialized gun for spraying low melting point metals
  • SP – a dedicated gun for the most efficient precious metals’ deposition
  • STi – a specialized gun for the deposition of titanium and Ti-alloy coatings

  Additional equipment:

  • A Grit Feeder for the grit blast preparation of parts to reduce coating cost
  • A Gas Permeability Tester for an instant check of a coating’s through porosity
  • A Powder De-Duster to remove fine particles from a metallic powder

Kermetico, Inc. – the Specialist in Material Science, HVOF and HVAF Equipment Manufacturing

Since our incorporation in 2006, we have installed more than 60 HVAF and HVOF systems worldwide. Some of these systems are at work in Universities and National Labs, but most of them are used in production thermal spray shops.

We proudly design and produce our thermal spray coating equipment in California and install it all over the world.

You can visit our R&D center in Benicia to meet our designers and see our HVAF and HVOF equipment.

We provide thermal spray coating services for customers around the San Francisco Bay Area in California, USA.