Patent ID: 7981479

Claim:
A system for use in applying a coating of a desired material onto at least one component, said system comprising: a plurality of thermal sprayers; a rotatable holding fixture having a plurality of mounting stations, each of the mounting stations being operable to securely hold at least one component, wherein the fixture is operable to rotate about a central axis and each of the mounting stations being operable to rotate about a respective mounting station axis, wherein the central axis of the fixture is removed from the mounting station axes of the respective mounting stations of the fixture, wherein each of the plurality of thermal sprayers is operable to spray at least one desired material upon at least one of the components, and wherein the fixture is operable to rotate about its central axis while simultaneously therewith at least one of the mounting stations having a respective component rotates about its respective mounting station axis; and a control device to control rotational speed of the fixture and to control rotational speed of a number of the mounting stations such that a ratio of the rotational speed of the fixture to the rotational speed of the number of the mounting stations is a whole integer to avoid build-up of sprayed desired material on a substrate or substrates of the respective component or components, in which a minimum rotational speed of the fixture is defined as follows: minimum rotational speed of the fixture=(linear speed of component)/(π)(diameter D ) wherein the linear speed of the component represents a speed at which cracking of a coating layer on the outer surface thereof is avoided during the operation, and the diameter D is equal to twice a distance from a center of a respective mounting station to a center of the fixture, and in which the rotational speed of the respective mounting station is defined as follows: mounting station rotational speed= n (π)( D/w )(the fixture rotational speed) wherein D is equal to twice the distance from the center of the respective mounting station to the center of the fixture, w represents a diameter or width of a flame of particles projected from the thermal sprayer, and n represents a number of revolutions of the respective component while the respective component crosses a path of the flame during a single revolution of the fixture.