Generally the as-sprayed surface is rough and textured. The rough and high bond strength coatings are ideal for bond coats for less strongly bonding coatings. Some plasma sprayed ceramic coatings produce smooth but textured coatings important in the textile industry. Other applications make use of the abrasive nature of some coating surfaces. Thermally sprayed coatings do not provide bright high finish coatings with out finishing like that of electroplated deposits.
Coatings generally have poor strength, ductility and impact properties.
Coatings are limited to the load they can carry, and thus require a substrate for support, even then, coatings are poor when point loaded. Internal tensile coating stresses generally adversely effect properties. Effective bond strength is reduced and can be destroyed by increasing levels of internal stress. This in turn effects coating thickness limits. Coatings on external diameters can be built up to greater thickness than that on internal diameters.