US 12,655,513 B2Granted

Deposition of coatings on manufactured products using real-time powder feed rate control

AssigneeKennametal Inc.

InventorsAndrew M. Ruminski, Ted Niespodziany, Robert J. Vasinko, Qingjun Zheng

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Abstract

A powder feeder system includes multiple electro-mechanical powder feeders structured for conveying powder compositions to a mixing hopper. A programmable logic control (PLC) can be incorporated into the multiple feeder system. The PLC can be programmed for determining a real-time powder flow rates for the powder feeders, receiving recipe data input related to creating a resultant coating composition, comparing powder composition flow rate data to the recipe data, and adjusting the operational aspects of motors and metering wheels associated with the multiple powder feeders in response to comparing the powder composition flow rate data to the recipe data. In various applications, the powder feeder system can be a subsystem of a thermal spray system configured for hardfacing and coating work pieces such as drill bits, road mills, shafts, mining tools, and/or stabilizers.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A powder feeder system comprising:

a first electro-mechanical powder feeder structured for conveying a first powder composition to a mixing hopper, the first powder feeder having a first metering wheel operatively associated with a first motor;
a second electro-mechanical powder feeder structured for conveying a second powder composition to the mixing hopper, the second powder feeder having a second metering wheel operatively associated with a second motor;
and
a programmable logic control (PLC) programmed for:
determining a real-time powder flow rate associated with a flow rate of the first powder composition from the first powder feeder,
determining a real-time powder flow rate associated with a flow rate of the second powder composition from the second powder feeder,
receiving recipe data input related to at least one resultant coating composition,
comparing at least one of the determined first powder composition flow rate and/or the determined second powder composition flow rate to at least a portion of the received recipe data, and
adjusting at least one operational aspect of at least one of the first motor and/or the second motor in response to comparing at least one of the received first powder composition flow rate data and/or the received second powder composition flow rate data to at least a portion of the received recipe data.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.