State and prospects for developing plasma arc devices for technological purposes

An outline of the development of plasma-type production process apparatus is given. A classification for the main kinds of plasma technology is proposed. Considered are the areas of application of plasmatrons, the schematic diagrams, the process conditions and the operating parameters. A plasma technological process is described as a plasma transformation of a substance. Four major problems in the development and the industrial introduction of a plasma technological apparatus have been emphasized, namely, the supply of energy to the plasma, the plasma confinement, the supply of a substance into the plasma and their interaction and, finally, the recovery of the product from the plasma. The currently central promising steps in the development of plasma technological apparatus have been planned