Thermal Spray Technology for Advanced Composite Materials

Hitesh Vasudev is a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Department of Research Impact and Outcome, Research and Development Cell at Lovely Professional University, India. He obtained his PhD from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, India. His primary research interests are surface engineering, with particular emphasis on thermal spray technologies; development of nanostructured, multimodal, and high-entropy alloy coatings for high-temperature oxidation and corrosion resistance; thermal barrier coatings (TBCs); and microwave processing of materials. Dr. Vasudev has guided numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students, with 13 PhD scholars being successfully awarded degrees under his supervision. He has authored over 250 publications across journals, conferences, and book chapters, co-edited more than 10 books, and holds one granted patent. Dr. Vasudev is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Gaurav Prashar is a Professor and Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Rayat Bahra Professional University, India with over 16 years of teaching experience. He earned his PhD degree from Lovely Professional University, India. He has published 20 papers, 13 book chapters, and 7 international conference papers. Dr. Prashar is the co-editor of two book publications with CRC Press, including Thermal Spray Coatings for High-Temperature Conditions (2025) and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Thermal Spray Industry: Practices, Implementation, and Challenges (2023). He works on the post-processing of thermal spray coatings and has contributed extensively to journal articles on the subject. In addition, Dr. Prashar serves as a reviewer in numerous journals, and he is currently working on the development of nano-structured bimodal alloy coatings for high-temperature oxidation and erosion resistance.

Lalit Thakur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, India. He obtained his MTech and PhD degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. For the past 13 years, Dr. Thakur has been continuously exploring new possibilities in the fields of welding engineering and thermal spray technology. His current research areas include thermal spray coatings and tungsten inert-gas (TIG) weld claddings for wear, corrosion, biomedical applications, ferromagnetic lubricants, advanced composite development by powder metallurgy, stir casting, and friction stir processing. Dr. Thakur has authored more than 60 research articles in various journals, conferences, and edited books and serves as a reviewer for several journals. He is the co-editor of four book publications with CRC Press, including Thermal Spray Coatings for High-Temperature Conditions (2025), Thermal Claddings for Engineering Applications (2024), Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Thermal Spray Industry: Practices, Implementation, and Challenges (2023), and Thermal Spray Coatings (2021). He has published two patents in the field of thermal spray coatings and friction stir processing.