A reactive hopper assembly for feeding a low pressure cold spray applicator for applying powder coatings is disclosed. A powder feed cartridge provides powder feed to a reaction chamber. An impeller housing is interconnected with the reaction chamber for receiving powder feed from the reaction chamber for metering powder feed received from the reaction chamber. A hopper vessel receives metered powder feed from the impeller housing for providing powder to the low pressure cold spray applicator. The reaction chamber is fluidly connected to a source of a reactive gas for chemically modifying the powder feed for in situ reducing surface oxidation of the powder feed.

A thermal spraying system includes a fixing device and a thermal spraying apparatus that are relatively movable. The thermal spraying apparatus includes a hollow pipe, an extrusion die, a transporting device, a helical pipe, a fluid supplying device, and a heater. The hollow pipe defines an accommodating space. The extrusion die is connected with the hollow pipe. The extrusion die has a nozzle. The nozzle is in spatial communication with the accommodating space. The transporting device is used for moving a raw material to pass through the nozzle. The hollow pipe is surrounded by the helical pipe. An end of the helical pipe is connected to the nozzle. The fluid supplying device is connected to another end of the helical pipe. The heater encloses the helical pipe and the hollow pipe for heating the helical pipe and the accommodating space.

A powder layer composite includes a base and a powder layer having a thickness of 100 m or less and disposed on the base. An average of a total value of a number of powder aggregates having a long diameter of 500 m or greater and a number of pinholes having a long diameter of 500 m or greater, in any of a plurality of different regions of 20 mm20 mm on a surface of the powder layer, is 0.2 pieces/cm.sup.2 or less.

A powder feed unit having a powder collection unit that includes a surface covering part and a powder collect-and-load part that allow a carrier gas to enter a powder collect-and-load cavity of the powder collect-and-load part via a first passageway, and powder particles to freely fall into said cavity via a second passageway. Upon entering said cavity, the powder particles are loaded onto the carrier gas thereby reducing and ideally avoiding contact between the powder particles and interior surfaces of said cavity. The carrier gas that is loaded with the powder particles can exit said cavity via a third passageway that is fluidly connected with a tubular conveyor element. An apparatus for performing laser welding processes or thermal spraying processes that includes the powder feed unit.

A peristaltic pump comprises a drive assembly, a hose pump, and a hose bracket. The drive assembly is rotatably disposed within a frame to move a roller along a pumping path with respect to the frame. The pump hose has rigid hose ends connected by a bendable hose section with limited flexibility tending to bias the pump hose towards a substantially unbent shape. The hose bracket has a rigid body with a first central opening sized to receive the rigid hose ends at first and second retention locations, such that the natural bias of the pump hose towards a substantially unbent shape retains the hose ends within the first and second retention locations, positioning the bendable hose section along the pumping path of the roller.

A wet powder manufacturing apparatus includes a housing being arranged such that a central axis CL of the cylindrical inner surface extends in a substantially horizontal direction, a plurality of stirring blades provided rotatably about the central axis CL, a rotary plate configured to rotate the stirring blades about the central axis CL such that the wet powder accumulated at the bottom of the cylindrical inner surface is scooped by the stirring blades and then dropped, a driving device configured to impart a rotary force to the rotary plate, a liquid diffusing device configured to diffuse liquid into the drum inner space so as to wet the powder, and a controller configured to control operations of the driving device and the liquid diffusing device. The controller includes control for vibrating the stirring blades.

A raised resin portion 8, 9 is formed by thermally spraying a powdered resin on a local portion such as a bonding step portion of a cup-shaped formed paper article 1 to improve sealing performance of the formed paper article and form a resin coating layer 60 including a scorching-preventing substance on a local region where scorching tends to occur during heating in a microwave oven. The raised resin portion is formed on the local region by intermittently discharging the resin powder from a tank with a shutter device and repeatedly thermally spraying the resin powder on the local region with a pressurized gas.

A system and method of automatically adjusting an amount of agricultural granular material delivered to a field in response to vehicle steering activities. The system includes a sensor that is associated with a steering system of a vehicle configured to apply the material to a field. The sensor is connected to a controller that is configured to determine a deviation value associated with discrete turning activities. The controller is configured to manipulate operation of a first commodity delivery system and a second commodity delivery system such that different amounts of the agricultural material can be delivered to alternate lateral sides of the vehicle in response to turning activities.

A composite structure formation method includes the steps of storing a plurality of pre-formed controlled particles in a storage mechanism, supplying the controlled particles from the storage mechanism to an aerosolation mechanism constantly, disaggregating the supplied controlled particles into a plurality of the fine particles in the aerosolation mechanism to form an aerosol in which an entire contents of the controlled particles including the fine particles are dispersed in the gas; and spraying all of the fine particles in the aerosol toward the substrate to form a composite structure of the structure and the substrate. The controlled particles are controlled so that bonding strength between the fine particles includes a mean compressive fracture strength sufficient to substantially avoid disaggregation during the supply step, but which permits the controlled particles to be substantially completely disaggregated in the disaggregation step.

Means for dispensing a powdery coloring substance onto the surface of a mix comprising stone, stone-like, glass or ceramic material. The means comprise at least one dispensing device for containing and dispensing a powdery coloring substance and at least one spreading device. The spreading device comprises at least one moving perforated plate which receives a metered amount of said coloring substance from the dispensing device and distributes it over the surface of the mix.