Patent ID: 8389066

Claim:
A method of prepping a surface and subsequently applying a coating to the surface, the method comprising: entraining coating particles into a pulsed fluid stream generated by a nozzle having an ultrasonic transducer that includes a microtip, the nozzle comprising a detachable body connected to a downstream portion of the nozzle, the body including a particle inlet downstream of the microtip and a mixing chamber downstream of the particle inlet, wherein the nozzle also comprises a converging or diverging section and a tube defining an exit orifice of the nozzle wherein an upstream end of the converging or diverging section matches a downstream end of the mixing chamber; mixing the coating particles into the pulsed fluid stream in the mixing chamber; directing the pulsed fluid stream through the exit orifice of the tube at the surface to be prepped, wherein the coating particles act as blasting particles for prepping the surface to a desired surface roughness to enable subsequent application of the coating to the surface; recovering the coating particles that do not adhere to the surface when prepping the surface; filtering the recovered coating particles to obtain reduced-size coating particles; and applying the coating to the surface using the reduced-size coating particles.