In modern research and industrial applications, the importance of coatings can hardly be underestimated. Coatings are used extensively in optics, biomedical instruments, cutting tools, and solar panels to name a few. The primary purpose of any coating is to alter surface properties of the base material thus adding new functionality or improving the performance of the original product. A multitude of coating techniques has evolved over the years with spray coating being one of the more widely used. Some applications require deposition of materials that are either in the form of a solution or suspension. Therefore, before or during the deposition process small droplets of the said liquid are formed and transferred onto the substrate. Since differently sized droplets have different surface impact dynamics, droplet velocity at the impact plays an important role in the way it will adhere to the surface. Most spray coating techniques do not take into account the process of droplet-surface interaction which may result in overspray, poor coating thickness control, and material waste.

The research presented in this dissertation outlines the supporting principles, design, fabrication and testing of an innovative spray coating system that provides the ability to fine tune coating parameters, including droplet impact velocities, to provide close to optimum deposition conditions. The core of the design consist of a dual velocity nozzle unit that ensures acceptable range of droplet velocities at the surface, while keeping droplets from accelerating excessively inside the system. Early experiments showed the system’s potential to produce nanoparticle coatings with particles uniformly distributed across the substrate. In addition, pigment coating for improved 3D scanning was also performed, thereby improving the surface definition and accuracy of the scanning results. Scalability of the system also led to experiments in applying this technology to microprinting. Preliminary microprinting results illustrated the system’s flexibility and opened new research avenues in micro-coating, microprinting, and, possibly rapid prototyping. Furthermore, thanks to the highly adaptable nature of the proposed design, seamless incorporation of a torch-like device into the nozzle unit was also possible. That provided the opportunity to perform in situ thermal processing or sintering of deposited material as well as production of a nanoparticle coating in a one-step process by thermally decomposing precursor solution.

Technology developed during the research work presented in this dissertation demonstrated its ability to be adapted in a number of applications that can benefit both industry and engineering research alike. Large area coatings, nanoparticle production, micro-coating, and coatings for improved 3D scanning are just a few areas where the presented technique can already, or may, if developed further, outperform existing and widely accepted methods. Fine tuning of the system to a particular application, and tapping into its potential in other fields will be explored in future research.