Although many thermal plasma processes have been developed for industrial applications, the wide acceptance as a manufacturing technology is prevented due to economical and competitive reasons, and/or reproducibility and reliability aspects. This paper is devoted to an assessment of the present knowledge in the following topics: 1) plasma torch and performance of blown are (de or ac), transferred are and radio frequency torches; 2) established industrial applications with special emphasis on cutting, welding, spraying, transferred are reclamation; reheating and purification, reheating metal melts, smelting reduction, chemical operations, and waste destruction; 3) recent developments in the knowledge of fundamental processes in plasma torches with power sources, cathodes (hot and cold), anodes (static and dynamic behavior), and torch components; 4) modeling-thermodynamic and transport properties, plasma flow with and without the Maxwell's equations; 5) measurement techniques including emission and absorption spectroscopy, laser scattering, enthalpy probes, video cameras, spectral analysis, shadowgraphy, and particle diagnostics either in flight with statistical measurements and those giving characteristics of a single particle upon flattening on a substrate; and 6) plasma-processing development in the presently used industrial processes and also in prospective processes with surface hardening, ultrafine powder production, plasma-assisted CVD, and plasma-fluidized or spouted bed reactors.
