Patent ID: 7390573

Claim:
A process for coating a non-planar substrate defining a working distance variation in the range of 6 cm to 16 cm, comprising: generating a plasma from one or more stationary expanding thermal plasma sources; injecting a first set of vaporized reagents into the plasma to form a first coating on the substrate; and injecting a second set of vaporized reagents into the plasma to form one or more coatings over the first coating, the plasma having an Ar flow and arc current that determine the total ion flux that provides substantially uniform properties at various working distances from the expanding thermal plasma source to the substrate, the total ion flux being calculated based on an uncorrected ion flux determined as a function of radial distance across the plasma at a given working distance from the plasma source and fitting the data to a Gaussian distribution, the area under the Gaussian distribution and the width determining the total ion flux.