Thermal Spray Calculator

Thermal spray coating amount starts from simple geometry: the coating's volume is surface area times target thickness (converted from mils to inches), and multiplying that volume by the feedstock material's density gives the actual weight of coating that ends up on the part. The harder number to pin down is how much feedstock you have to buy to get that coating weight, because spray processes don't deposit everything they emit — some material bounces off or drifts past the part as overspray. This calculator applies a deposit efficiency specific to the process you select: 70% for HVOF, 55% for plasma spray, 78% for wire arc, and 48% for flame spray, reflecting how wire arc's electric-arc melting wastes comparatively little material while flame spray's combustion-driven stream loses much more.

Dividing the target coating weight by that efficiency gives total feedstock required, and the difference between feedstock required and coating weight is reported directly as overspray waste — a number worth watching since it's pure cost with no coating benefit. Spray time comes from dividing feedstock required by your feed rate, and total cost adds feedstock material cost, labor at your hourly rate for that spray time, and a gas/consumable cost that's scaled per process (HVOF's fuel-and-oxygen combustion runs highest, wire arc's electricity-only process runs lowest). The deposit efficiency values are representative industry figures, not calibrated to your specific gun, nozzle, or standoff distance, so treat this as a planning and quoting tool — real production efficiency should be validated against your own coupon tests, especially for complex geometries where line-of-sight spray coverage is harder to achieve.