This process is basically the spraying of molten material onto a surface to provide a coating. Material in powder form is melted in a flame to form a fine spray. When the spray contacts the prepared surface of a substrate material, the fine molten droplets rapidly solidify forming a coating.

The main advantage of this flame spray process over the similar Combustion wire spray process is that a much wider range of materials can be easily processed into powder form giving a larger choice of coatings. The flame spray process is only limited by materials with higher melting temperatures than the flame can provide or if the material decomposes on heating.