Collaboration with Holster Engineering

STEVEN MATTHEWS
Our work with Holster Engineering started in the mid 90s. Now Holsters have been one of the driving forces for metal spray technology in New Zealand for a very, very long time. They were one of the first companies in the world to purchase a new thermal spray technology called high-velocity air fuel spraying.

Now at the time, not very much was known about the technique in terms of operating parameters or what benefits it would bring in terms of coating quality, and so Holsters approached Auckland University with the idea of getting some of the staff to carry our research using this new technology to benchmark it against other existing techniques. And with that, a PhD student started in the mid to late 90s, and that was the first kind of collaborative work, and from there, the research has built on itself.

I’ve been incredibly lucky in returning to New Zealand to be able to carry out my thermal spray research here. The equipment that’s involved, not only in terms of the plasma spray equipment but also all of the ancillary equipment and the safety equipment, is extremely capital intensive. And it’s very cost prohibitive to try and install these kind of systems at a university. Similarly, the knowledge that’s involved from a technical point of view to not only run the equipment but to maintain the equipment, there’s a lot of knowledge required to change all of the consumable parts, do it safely, operate the gun safely, prepare all the substrates.

Holsters have been incredibly supportive in allowing me to come down here and carry out experiments using their equipment. Without them, I simply would not be able to carry out any research at all.

Acknowledgements:
Dr Steven Matthews, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University, Auckland
Bruce Martin and Aaron Martin, Holster Engineering Ltd, Tokoroa