High density and low porosity of gas dynamic sprayed coatings may provide gases and liquids impermeability. But jet deflection and stagnation in the narrow splits and reach-through holes prevent from sealing up the deep substrate defects by gas dynamic spray. The correct choice of powder blend makes the gas dynamic spray process applicable to the splits and holes sealing up. The approaches to the defects sealing up by gas dynamic spray and some applications are presented and discussed.

We investigate the sprayability of various hard metal and composite powder coatings via kinetic spray on cast iron by utilizing both powder and substrate preheat. These coatings include copper, a copper-zirconia composite, nickel, a zinc-nickel composite, and Ti6Al4V alloy. Using the kinetic spray process the coatings were applied to a cast iron substrate which was ground and sand blasted prior to spray. Analysis performed on powders and coating includes: cross-sectional microscopy, hardness of powders and substrate, substrate temperature as a function of heating and cooling times, and adhesion at the coating/substrate level. Results include spray parameters to allow for nickel and copper coatings to be developed on cast iron, adhesion strength as a function of powder hardness, porosity of nickel and Ti6Al4V coatings, and incorporation rates of zirconia in a copper matrix on cast iron. This is an attempt to spray hard powders on a hard substrate. Harder particles are more difficult to spray because they require more energy to plastically deform. Therefore the hardness of the particles plays a significant role in the deposition of a coating. Similarly, harder substrates are more difficult to spray on. This work demonstrates techniques that make spraying hard particles on hard substrates possible.

In this study, Al-Sn binary alloy coatings were prepared with Al-5wt.%Sn (Al-5Sn) and Al-10wt.%Sn (Al-10Sn) gas atomized powders by low pressure and high pressure cold spray process. The microstructure and microhardness of the coatings were characterized. The as-sprayed coating were heat treated at 150, 200, 250 and 300 °C for 1 hour, respectively. The effect of heat treatment on microstructure, microhardness and content of Sn phase of the coatings were investigated. The bonding strength of as-sprayed and heat treated Al-Sn coatings were also studied. The results show that the dense and well-bonded Al-10Sn coating can be deposited by low pressure with helium gas while Al-5Sn coating by high pressure cold spray with nitrogen gas. The content of Sn for both Al-5Sn and Al- 10Sn in as-sprayed coatings are consistent with that in feed stock powders. The coarsening and/or migration of Sn phase in both coatings were observed when the annealing temperature exceeds 200 °C. Furthermore, the microhardness of the coatings decreased significantly under the annealing temperature of 250 °C. EDAX analysis shows that the heat treatment has no significant effect on content of Sn phase in Al-5Sn coatings. Bonding strength of as-sprayed Al-10Sn coating is slightly higher than that of Al-5Sn coating. Annealing under 200 °C can increase the bonding strength of Al-5Sn coatings.

For years, special attention has been paid to study and to develop innovative copper alloys and composites, with improved mechanical behaviour in respect to pure copper and preserving its excellent electrical and thermal properties. In this work different copper/alumina blends have been prepared and then deposited by cold spray at different gas carrier temperatures. The deposition efficiency and the content of embedded alumina have been determined by means of image analysis using SPIP software. Optimized deposition temperature results 450°C: the coatings exhibit compact, pore-free microstructure and very low oxidation. Microhardness and friction coefficient have been evaluated of both pure copper and composite coatings. An increase of microhardness from 65HV 0.015 to 150HV 0.5 has been observed while a progressive reduction of friction coefficient as a function of alumina content has been reported. Further characterizations to determine thermal and electrical properties of copper/alumina composites are in progress.

Micro-structural design had attracted increasing interests in modern developments of hard coatings. The ability of cold spray process to retain the feedstock microstructure into coating makes it possible to design coating microstructure through feedstocks for development of different coating properties. In this study, a multi-size modal WC-12Co powder containing nano-sized WC particles was designed to deposit WC-Co deposition with multi-sized WC. Multimodal WC-12Co powders were prepared with ball-milling of a commercial WC-12Co powder, cold-compacting, sintering in hydrogen atmosphere and crushing. WC particle size in the powder exhibits a distribution with two peaks in tens of nanometers and several micrometers. The multimodal WC-12Co deposition was prepared by cold spraying using helium as driving gas. The multimodal size of WC particles in the powders was retained into the deposit. The micro-hardness and fracture toughness of the multimodal structured WC-12Co deposit was compared with bulk WC-12Co. It was found that the multimodal deposition exhibits a comparable hardness to nano-sized WC-12Co and a high fracture toughness compared with micro-sized WC-12Co. The simultaneous strengthening and toughening of WC-12Co can be realized through the bimodal microstructure design of WC-Co.

Ni/Al alloy powders were synthesized by ball milling of nickel-aluminum powder mixture with a Ni/Al atomic ratio of 1:1. Ni/Al alloy coating was deposited by cold spraying using N 2 as accelerating gas. NiAl intermetallic compound was evolved in-situ through post-spray annealing treatment of cold-sprayed Ni/Al alloy coating. The effect of annealing temperature on the phase transformation behavior from Ni/Al mechanical alloy to intermetallics was investigated. The microstructure of the mechanically alloying Ni/Al powder and NiAl coatings was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results show that a dense Ni/Al alloy coating can successfully be deposited by cold spraying using the mechanically alloyed powder as feedstock. The as-sprayed alloy coating exhibited a laminated microstructure retained from the mechanically alloying powder. The annealing of the subsequent Ni/Al alloy coating at a temperature higher than 850°C leads to the complete transformation from Ni/Al alloy to NiAl intermetallic compound.

FeAl Intermetallic compounds have excellent wear resistance and high temperature oxidation resistances. The low temperature brittleness makes intermetallic compound materials more suitable to be applied in the form of coating to protect materials from high temperature oxidation and wear. In the present study, a iron/aluminum composite coating was produced by cold spraying of iron and aluminum powder mixtures and then was annealed at different temperatures to aim at forming an iron aluminide intermetallic based coating. The deposition behavior of iron and aluminum powder mixtures and microstructural characteristics of the as-sprayed deposit were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The kinetics of the phase transformation of the as-sprayed iron/aluminum composite deposit to iron aluminide was characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that after heat treatment at a temperature of 600°C, intermediate phase Al 5 Fe 2 coexisted in the deposit with remaining Fe and Al. With increasing heat treatment temperature to 900°C, the deposits consisted of mainly FeAl phase and a trace of remaining Fe phase.

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is a promising material for photocatalyst coating. However, it was difficult to fabricate TiO 2 coatings which have excellent photocatalyst property by thermal spray processes. Because anatase phase of TiO 2 transforms into rutile phase under high temperature i.e. the photocatalyst property of TiO 2 declines by heating. In this study, TiO 2 photocatalyst coatings were fabricated by cold spraying. Agglomerated TiO 2 powder with 100% anatase phase was injected into nitrogen or helium gas stream and deposit onto steel substrate. It was possible to fabricate TiO 2 coatings with anatase phase and dense microstructure. The deposition efficiency was increased with gas temperature. The photocatalytic property of the coatings was evaluated by NOx elimination test. From the results, it became clear that cold sprayed TiO 2 coatings had excellent photocatalyst property.

A new approach is explored to achieve the aluminum alloy powder layer from nanoparticle contained metallic powder mixture feedstock by Low Pressure Gas Dynamic Spray (LPGDS) or Cold Spray (LPCS). In this approach, mixtures of micron-sized aluminum powder (average size of 10 µm) and alloying nano-powder of Cu, Si and TiC (200-500 nm), at appropriate proportions to compositions of Al-5wt%Cu, Al-5wt%Cu-0.75wt%Si and Al- 5wt%Cu-5wt%TiC with polymer binder were prepared by stirring. Then, the powder mixture was compacted into pellets, dryed, and further milled to obtain the particle agglomerates (average size of 50 µm) . The powder feedstock were sprayed by LPCS. In this paper, we investigate the spraying behavior Al-based nanoparticle contained powder mixtures the microstructural development and mechanical properties of deposited layers using a microindentation, scanning probe microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray analysis.

Nozzle geometry influences gas dynamics, such as gas density, velocity and temperature, making sprayed particle behavior one of the most important parameters in cold spray process. Gas flow at the entrance convergent section of the nozzle takes place at relatively high temperature and are subsonic. Thus, this region is a very suitable environment for heating spray particle. In this study, numerical simulation and experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of nozzle contour (convergent –divergent and convergent-divergent-barrel), entrance geometry of convergent–divergent nozzle and powder injection position at nozzle on the cold spray process. The process changes inside the nozzle were observed through numerical simulation studies and the results were used to find a correlation with coating properties. A copper and titanium powder was used in the experiments. Working gas (is nitrogen) pressure and temperature at nozzle-intake were 3MPa and 623K, respectively. In addition, the change in the nozzle contour and the change in the entrance convergent section length of the gun nozzle were found to have a slight effect on the coating microstructure. Powder injection position was also found to influence deposition efficiency and coating properties. Deposition efficiency of both copper and titanium increase with increasing the length of the convergent section of the nozzle.

Wear properties of WC/Co cermet coatings have been investigated prepared by cold spraying. Influence of cobalt contents (12~25wt.%), WC particle size (0.2 and 1.8 µm) and agglomerated-and-sintered powder size (-20+0 and - 45+15 µm) on abrasive wear resistance, micro hardness and coating structure is studied, in detail. It has been found that both smaller WC particle and decrease of cobalt content are effective to produce dense, hard and highly wear resistant coating. Smaller powder size is also favorable to make a coating with high mechanical properties. As a result, the cold sprayed coating from WC(0.2 µm)/12wt.%Co with powder size of -20+0 µm has best mechanical properties within this study. This coating has high uniformity and high density with little pores compared to conventional HVOF sprayed coatings. Abrasive wear resistance of the cold sprayed coating, investigated using Suga-abrasion tester, has been almost comparable to HVOF sprayed coating prepared from same feedstock. Strong correlation is also seen between Vickers hardness and abrasive wear resistance. Microstructural analysis suggests that further improvement of coating uniformity by decrease of small pores with the size of sub micron and homogeneous dispersion of WC grains in the cobalt matrix is required to improve the mechanical properties.

The carbide decomposition and the dissolution of carbide into the binder accompanying with thermal spraying of cermets can be eliminated during cold spray deposition of WC-Co. However, the limited deformation of hard impacting cermet particles and impacted coating makes it difficult for conventional thermal spray powders to continuously build up on impact in cold spraying. The porous structure of WC-Co powders provides the powder particles with certain deformability on high velocity impact, which benefits the continuous building-up of coating. In this study, three nano-structured WC-12Co powders with different porous structures and apparent hardness were employed to deposit WC-Co coatings on stainless steel substrate by cold spraying. The deposition characteristics of three powders of different porosity levels of 44%, 30% and 5% were investigated. It was found that WC-Co coating is easily built-up using the porous powders with WC particles bonded loosely and a low hardness. The microhardness of WC-12Co coatings varied from Hv400 to Hv1790 with powders and spray conditions, which depends on the densification effects by impacting particles. With porous WC-Co powders, the fracture of particles on impact may occur and low deposition efficiency during cold spraying. The successful coating building up at high deposition efficiency depends on the design of powder porous structure.

Nickel titanium is promising cavitation erosion resistant material. Using NiTi in bulk for components might not be feasible due to its poor workability, as well as the high material and processing costs. Surfacing components with its coating is effective for utilizing the good erosion properties of NiTi intermetallic compounds. In this study, a method to prepare NiTi intermetallic compound coatings in-situ through annealing of the cold-sprayed Ni(Ti) metastable coating was investigated. A nanostructured Ni(Ti) solid solution alloy powder was prepared by ball-milling process. The cold sprayed Ni(Ti) alloy coating was used as the precursor coating. The effect of annealing temperature on the microstructure in-situ evolution of Ni-Ti intermetallic compound in cold-sprayed coating was investigated. The morphology and phase composition of the powders milled for different durations and the microstructure of the as-sprayed coating were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that after annealing at 950°C the Ni(Ti) alloy was transformed to intermetallic phases. NiTi, Ni 3 Ti and NiTi 2 intermetallic phases coexisted in the annealed coating.

In this paper, tin-bronze/TiN and tin-bronze/quasicrystal (AlCuFeB) composite coatings were fabricated by cold spray process. Microstructures and microhardness of coatings were characterized. Ball-on-disc dry sliding wear tests were conducted in an ambient condition to examine the tribological performance of the composite coatings. The results show that the microhardness and densities of composite coatings increase significantly compared to those of the pure tin-bronze coating. The friction coefficients of coatings decrease with the introduction of reinforces. Furthermore, the tin-bronze/quasicrystal composite coating yields a lower friction coefficient and wear rate compared to the bronze/TiN coating. The tribological mechanisms were discussed.

In this work, effect of substrate roughness on the deposition behavior of the particles through kinetic spray technology is studied. Finite element analysis program, ABAQUS 6.7-2 was used to estimate the results. Particle impact on the planar and roughened substrates were analyzed and compared. Interface temperature, contact area and contact time were found to be higher for the particle impact on roughened surfaces than that of the planar one for constant spray condition. These factors are significant for bonding mechanism. Experiments were performed on the polished and grit blasted surfaces in order to compare the results. The deposition efficiency and the bond strength values were used to evaluate the effect of surface roughness.

In this study, individual particle impact behaviors of soft particle on hard substrate were observed. The ratio of bonds was compared to the difference between adhesion and rebound energies. To improve the existing model, the equation for effective yield strength was modified and finite element analysis was applied to estimate the temperature and strain gradients. The energy difference was derived from the strain and temperature of the elements and compared to the experimental ratio of bonds.

In this study, three kinds of engineering metals, which are aluminum (1100-H12), commercially pure titanium and mild steel were combined as particle/substrate and classified into four cases, i.e., soft/soft, hard/hard, hard/soft and soft/hard, according to their physical and mechanical properties respectively. Based on finite element modeling, impacting interface elements of four cases were analyzed and impact behaviors were numerically characterized. For soft/soft and hard/hard cases, the maximum temperature at the substrate side, which approached melting point, is higher than that of particle side when the shear instabilities occur. In particular, the different size of thermal boost-up zone was numerically estimated and theoretically discussed for these two cases. Meanwhile, for soft/hard and hard/soft cases, the specific aspect of shear instability, which has very high heat-up rate, was always observed at the relatively soft impact counterpart, and a thin molten layer was expected as well. Thus, the successful bonding of the above mentioned four cases can be predicted as a result of the synergistic effect of localized shear instability with interfacial melting.

The demand of industry for metallic thermal sprayed coatings with controlled porosity until now is fulfilled by the spraying of metallic powders mixed with additives (organic element in many cases) which play the role of pores. The new technology of cold spray can lead to the formation of innovate coatings of controlled porosity by using pure metallic (or alloy) powder without any further addition. A fine Al-12Si powder (<45 µm) was sprayed with a cold spray system (CGT Kinetic 3000-M) on stainless steel substrate under different spraying conditions. In the present study, the new polymeric nozzle PBI-33 of CGT was used for the formation of al-based coatings. The microstructure, the porosity, the Vickers microhardness and the superficial Rockwell hardness (R15Y) of the produced coatings are examined.

Titanium particles were deposited on a steel substrate by the impact of high velocity in warm spraying. In the process, nitrogen gas at various flow rates was mixed to control the temperature of a supersonic gas flow generated by combustion. TEM and other techniques were used to analyze the microstructure of the interface between the titanium coatings and the substrate. At the lower nitrogen flow rate, thick oxide double layers in the interface region were observed. The adhesive strength of the coating was high even at lower particles’ velocity possibly because the mechanical interlocking between the titanium particle and the substrate could be enhanced by the high deformability of heated particles. As the nitrogen flow rate increased, however, just a little oxide and a very thin oxide layer covering on the titanium splats were locally detected. The highly localized pressure and the resultant intensive shear stress generated within a titanium particle by the impact could reveal the fresh metal surface through break-up of the thin oxide films on the particle and the substrate. As a result, the metallic bonding between the deposited particle and the substrate was formed and increased the adhesive strength remarkably beyond a certain impact velocity.

Aluminium alloys are widely used for transportation facilities, because of light weight and high corrosion-resistance. If there are some cracks in transportation, sometimes they repair by welding. However, it is difficult to weld aluminium materials. Because, Aluminium has high specific thermal conductivity and high coefficient of thermal expansion compared with that of steel. The cold spray technique is known as a new technique not only for coating but also for thick depositions. It has many advantages, i.e. dense coating, high deposition rate and low oxidation. Therefore, it has a possibility to apply the cold spray technique instead of welding to repair the cracks. What seems to be lacking, however, is deposition mechanisms and mechanical properties of deposition produced by low pressure type cold spraying. This is a very important issue for applying the cold spray to repair some structures. In this study, elucidation of deposition mechanisms and evaluation of mechanical properties for the low pressure type cold sprayed aluminium depositions were investigated. As a result of elucidation of deposition mechanisms, it can be clear that the particle deposition needs to activate the surface by several impingements. Furthermore, as a result of evaluation of mechanical properties, the cold sprayed specimen showed higher strength than the monolithic specimen in the case of compressive loading to the coating.