US 4,492,337 AGranted

Metal spray

AssigneeTafa, Incorporated

InventorsKent W. Harrington, John L. Stevens, Merle L. Thorpe

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A metal spray gun of the arc spray type has a nozzle-positioner member of electrically insulating material that is disposed between a gas inlet and an arc zone. A primary stream of gas is flowed through a through passage in the nozzle-positioner member, and seat surfaces in the through passage receive tips of individual electrically conductive contact tube assemblies that are biased outwardly away from one another. The nozzle-positioner member aligns the contact tube assemblies and configures the gas stream such that each metal wire is immediately enveloped in gas flow as it emerges from its contact tube and remains in that enveloping gas flow throughout the region between the contact tube tip and the arc zone. The spray gun produces quality metal spray coatings with lower gas pressures and has lower noise levels.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A metal spray device of the arc spray type that includes a body,

individual wire guides for each wire to be sprayed,
means for feeding a wire through each wire guide,
unitary alignment structure of electrically insulating material that defines a through passage that terminates in a discharge orifice,
seat surfaces on the walls of said through passage,
means for urging the tips of said wire guides outwardly away from one another to seat the tips of said wire guides on said seat surfaces,
said wire guides being positioned to direct the wires fed through said guides to a point of intersection forward of said seat surfaces,
means for connecting said wire guides to a source of electric current for establishing an electric arc between the ends of the wires adjacent said point of intersection, and
a gas inlet passage for flowing a stream of gas through said through passage of said alignment structure and into the arc zone to cause molten metal particles to be carried from the arc zone,
said alignment structure being arranged such that gas flow envelops the wires throughout the region between the ends of said wire guides and said arc zone.

6 more elements

In a metal spray device of the arc spray type,

alignment structure of electrically insulating material that defines a through passage,
said alignment structure being disposed between a gas inlet and an arc zone such that a primary stream of gas is arranged to flow through said through passage,
seat surfaces on the walls of said through passage,
individual wire guides for each wire to be sprayed, each said wire guide being adapted to guide a metal wire therethrough towards an arc zone forward of said alignment structure,
means for connecting said wire guides to a source of electric current for establishing an electric arc between the ends of the wires at said arc zone,
a gas inlet for flowing a primary stream of gas through said through passage into the arc zone to cause molten metal particles to be carried from the arc zone for deposit on a substrate, and
means for urging the tips of said wire guides outwardly away from one another to seat the tips of said wire guides on said seat surfaces of said alignment structure.

4 more elements

An electric arc metal spray device comprising a body,

individual wire guides for each wire to be sprayed,
means for feeding a wire through each wire guide towards an arc zone forward of said body,
means for connecting said wire guides to a source of electric current for establishing an electric arc between the ends of the wires at said arc zone,
a gas inlet for flowing a primary stream of gas into the arc zone to cause molten metal particles to be carried from the arc zone,
alignment structure of electrically insulating material that defines a through passage that terminates in a discharge orifice,
said alignment structure being disposed between said gas inlet and said arc zone such that said primary stream flows through said through passage of said alignment structure,
seat surfaces on the walls of said through passage, and
means for urging the tips of said wire guides outwardly away from one another to seat the tips of said wire guides on said seat surfaces.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.