Overall Introduction:

"Technology is advanced productive power, and data will represent the advanced productive power of thermal spraying.

Beijing United Coating Technologies Co., Ltd.'s (UCT) thermal spray data encompasses a broader range of information. With UCT’s Coda thermal spray data acquisition software, it not only means the ability to produce better coatings and trace and identify past coating quality issues, but also prepares the company for the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI)."

Coda System Overview:

“Based on customers’ actual control and needs regarding thermal spray process data, UCT currently develops and offers three levels of data acquisition software systems: Coda I, Coda I-plus, and Coda II.”

Coda I - Basic Data Acquisition:

"Coda I primarily targets the acquisition of internal data from thermal spray systems. Typically, many of our customers require a unified collection and storage of key operating parameters from multiple pieces of equipment within the thermal spray workshop using an external server.

UCT’s concept of a thermal spray system encompasses not only the core equipment but also the entire integrated thermal spray system, including peripheral devices. Taking plasma spraying equipment as an example, the core equipment generally includes the plasma torch, electrical control unit, power supply cabinet, powder feeder, operator interface, distribution connection box, and water chiller. Peripheral equipment typically includes a robotic arm, turntable, dust collector, and spray booth. Only the organic integration of core and peripheral equipment (i.e., system integration) creates a complete plasma spraying system.

It must be pointed out that plasma spray control cabinets using rotameters (float-type flow meters) for gas control cannot provide precise digital gas flow outputs, making data acquisition impossible. Therefore, to perform data acquisition, equipment based on mass flow controllers for process gas flow control is necessary. Around 2000, major international thermal spray equipment manufacturers launched thermal spray control systems using mass flow controllers for process gas flow control, providing the necessary hardware foundation for improved thermal spray process stability and data acquisition. In 2015, UCT launched and sold the first self-developed mass flow controller + PC + PLC plasma spray control system, UC1000, filling a gap in this field in China.

Today, these advanced digital devices, in addition to making significant contributions to equipment stability, convenience, and process repeatability, will also meet a new mission: the acquisition and management of thermal spray process data. This is a digital management concept born from the needs of the times. Digital production management can achieve real-time monitoring and data analysis of the production process through automated equipment and intelligent sensors, improving production efficiency. Digital production management can also improve product quality and stability through quality control systems and preventative maintenance. At the same time, data analysis can help companies identify potential problems and take timely measures for improvement.

Major international manufacturers and UCT’s UC1000 both have data acquisition capabilities. Although international equipment offers data acquisition as a purchasable option, requiring additional investment, the core equipment can monitor process data such as process gas flow, current, voltage, powder feed rate, etc., and retain 30 days of historical data. However, this is only a small step in data acquisition. Simply collecting these parameters as spray process data has limited significance. In other words, the core equipment’s relevant data is only a partial standard for coating quality control and is difficult to use to reproduce coating repeatability. This is because, in addition to the process parameters that the core equipment can record, peripheral equipment-related variables also play a crucial role in coating quality. These variables include spray distance, robotic arm travel speed, turntable rotation speed, part substrate temperature, etc. Therefore, the variables of peripheral equipment should also be included in the complete set of spray process data for acquisition.

UCT is committed to building and selling system engineering projects that organically combine core and peripheral equipment. Only with this system engineering as the hardware premise can complete and scientific data acquisition have practical significance. In short, by using UCT’s core UC1000 thermal spray equipment and integrating it with a complete set of peripheral equipment such as robotic arms, turntables, dust collectors, spray booths, and sensors, the thermal spray process data acquired by the Coda I software is relatively complete and systematic.

Therefore, the data collected by Coda I includes the flow rates of thermal spray process gases (primary and auxiliary gases), powder feed rate, etc., provided by the core equipment, as well as the turntable rotation speed, spray distance, etc., of the peripheral equipment. In particular, the spray trajectory of the robotic arm, as a system-integrated peripheral device, can be stored and collected by Coda I like data."