As Coated Compounding of Intermetallics from Feedstock of High and Low Melting Points by Cold Spraying Available to Purchase

It is well known that the inlet temperature of the spray gas influences the impact velocity of particles which, in turn, affects the mechanical and chemical properties of the final coating. From cold spray of high- and-low-melting-point feedstock such as Cu-Sn, it was found that those effects can vary with changes in particle shape and size. Copper powder feedstocks with different shapes, such as and dendritic (under 25 μm), were selected for analysis. For spherical (under 10 μm) powders of Cu₆Sn₅, an intermetallic compound (IMC) of Cu-Sn was formed in the as-coated state at and above gas inlet temperatures of 100 °C. for A gas inlet temperature of at least 300 °C was needed for the dendritic Cu powders. As temperatures increase, another IMC, Cu3Sn, was also formed. The onset temperature for the formation of the additional IMC was 450 °C for both shapes. Below 300 °C, both Cu and Sn were in solid state and thermodynamic driving forces were drawn from impact energy. Therefore, the spherical particles had more stored energy (strains) than the dendritic particles to initiate IMC formation.