Investigation of Cold Spray on Polymers by Single Particle Impact Experiments

Cold spray has been proved to be a viable method for metallization of polymers and polymer composites. It has been reported that the mechanism of cold spray on polymeric substrates is different from the conventional mechanism on metallic substrates (i.e. adiabatic shear instability). In this work, single particle impact experiments were performed on polymeric substrates as well as mild steel. The particle-substrate interactions on different substrates were analyzed. Based on the results, the mechanism of cold spray on polymeric substrates is discussed and compared to that on metallic substrates.