Characterization and Performance Evaluation of a Helium Recovery System Designed for Cold Spraying

This paper describes and evaluates the performance of a Helium Recovery System (HRS) designed for cold spraying. A flexible, automated, full scale HRS system has been designed and installed in the McGill Aerospace Materials & Alloy Development Center Cold Spray Facility, located at and in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada. The fully automated HRS has been designed to recover helium from the cold spray chamber with sufficient purity (>99%) and flow capacity (5 to 220 Nm³/h), allowing for a cost-effective operation by insuring a recovery rate of above 85%. In addition, a comparison of titanium coating properties obtained by using both He and N₂ as propellant gas is presented.