Abstract
While the technology of "cold gas" or "kinetic" spraying of materials has been under development for over a decade, no large-scale, commercial applications have yet established themselves in the broader thermal-spray marketplace. Similarly, automotive manufacturing has often been viewed as an important field of application for thermal spray technologies, yet this too has proven to be limited to a handful of key applications. Cold-spray technology offers some attractive features which could perhaps result in broader use for automotive applications by both OEM's and component manufacturers. This presentation firstly reviews some of the history and attributes of the cold spray process and secondly describes several potential application areas and preliminary results supporting these opportunities. Potential applications include metallizations, electric machines, advanced tooling repair, body construction and selective galvanizing.
