Experimental design of plasma spraying and laser treatment of hydroxyapatite coatings

Plasma spray process of hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, HA) followed by laser treatment of obtained coatings were optimized by an advanced statistical planning of experiments. The full factorial design of 24 experiments was used to find effects of four principal parameters, i.e. electric power, plasma forming gas composition, carrier gas flow rate and laser power density onto microstructure of hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings and powders and depth of laser melted zone. The SAS and Statgraphics commercial softwares have been applied to obtain the mathematical model of influence of process parameters onto experimental responses. The chosen responses were the fraction of HA crystal phase and two phases of its decomposition α-tricalcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2, α-TCP), tetracalcium phosphate (Ca4P2O9, TTCP) and, on the other hand, the depth of laser melted zone in the coating. The two most important factors influencing these responses are electric power supplied to torch, laser power density. Laser power density is very important for the depth of laser melted zone. The crystal phase content of powders and coatings was determined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) quantitative analysis. The morphologies of coatings surfaces, cross-sections were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM).