Tailoring strength and ductility in additive manufacturing or repair is key to successful applications. Therefore, cold spraying must be tuned for maximum amounts of well-bonded internal interfaces as well as sufficient softening of the highly workhardened deposit. Zinc (Zn) with its low melting temperature is an ideal model system to study phenomena associated with high strain rate deformation and local temperature distributions, both, in single impacts and thicker deposits. Bonding and recrystallization can be facilitated by covering selected wide parameter regimes in cold spraying. Despite the low temperatures, Zn single splats already show recrystallization at internal interfaces, the respective amounts then scaling with increasing process gas temperatures. At higher process temperatures, deposits are almost fully recrystallized. The recrystallization seems to improve bonding at internal and at deposit-substrate interfaces. Under optimum conditions, an ultimate deposit cohesive strength of up to 135 MPa and an elongation to failure of 18.4% are reached, comparable to that of laser-manufactured or bulk Zn parts. This demonstrates a welltuned interplay between high amounts of bonded interfaces and softening by recrystallization that allows for deriving bulk-like performance of cold sprayed material without additional posttreatments. Correlations between microstructures, mechanical properties, and fracture mechanisms supply information about prerequisites needed for reaching high ductility as obtained in damage and failure modes of deposits and bulk materials in global and local approaches.

Diamond-reinforced composites prepared by cold spray are emerging materials simultaneously featuring outstanding thermal conductivity and wear resistance. Their mechanical and fatigue properties relevant to perspective engineering applications were investigated using miniature bending specimens. Cold sprayed specimens with two different mass concentrations of diamond 20% and 50% in two metallic matrices (Al – lighter than diamond, Cu – heavier than diamond) were compared with the respective pure metal deposits. These pure metal coatings showed rather limited ductility. The diamond addition slightly improved ductility and fracture toughness of the Cu-based composites, having a small effect also on the fatigue crack growth resistance. In case of the Al composites, the ductility as well as fatigue crack growth resistance and fracture toughness have improved significantly. The static and fatigue failure mechanisms were fractographically analyzed and related to the microstructure of the coatings, observing that particle decohesion is the primary failure mechanism for both static and fatigue fracture.

An internationally recognized best practice for disposing used nuclear fuels is to store them in specially designed containers in deep geological repositories. One type of spent fuel container is a carbon steel canister with a cold-sprayed copper coating. The aim of this study is to assess the impact of various factors on the ductility of this protective copper layer. The current investigation finds that there can be significant variability in ductility when feedstock powder size and chemical composition are changed while keeping spraying and heat treatment conditions constant. Test results show that the ductility of nitrogen-sprayed copper decreases with increasing hardness, but can be improved by raising annealing temperature from 300 to 600 °C. The effects of substrate geometry and process variations are discussed as well.

This study assesses the mechanical performance of cold-sprayed aluminum 6061 coatings heat treated using focused IR radiation. The heat treatment was performed in-process with the aim of improving the ductility and strength of the coatings. The properties of the heat-treated samples are compared to those achieved using traditional annealing and as measured in as-sprayed samples. It was found that the rapid IR heat treatment increased the ultimate tensile strength of the coatings by 52% and elongation at failure by 43%.

Cold spray is a technology with great potential for additive manufacturing applications. Due to the high levels of plastic deformation experienced by the powder during the coating process, any deposit will require heat treatment post-spraying to improve ductility and fatigue strength. In extreme cases, the residual stresses from coating can cause delamination or compromise the bond strength when subsequent cold spray layers are deposited. This work details the use of a commercial CO 2 laser cutter to perform a surface heat treatment on single lines of cold sprayed aluminium, to relieve residual stresses. The effect of laser power and traverse speed on material hardness is quantified, and compared with as sprayed deposits. The results shown in this work demonstrate the potential for in-process heat treatment to reduce post-processing time and improve coating quality by reducing residual stresses.

Repairing of Ni-alloy components using cold spray is being increasingly considered as an option in the aerospace industry. To further the understanding of the microstructure of Ni-alloy coatings and the bonding mechanism, gas atomised alloy 718 was sprayed onto carbon steel substrates to form 0.5mm thick coatings and single particle impacts. Spray trials were performed with different process parameters to compare the splat and coating morphology/microstructure and to optimise the parameters. The powder consumable, single particle impacts and coatings were characterised using SEM, EBSD, TEM and nanoscale XRF and XRD. Four-point bend tests were performed to test strength, ductility, cracking and de-bonding. Fine grains were observed in the substrate-particle interfaces caused by particle fragmentation, deformation and dynamic recrystallisation. Low angle grain boundaries and sub-grains form in the substrate due to strain induced by high energy impacts. The deposition efficiency, thickness, porosity, hardness and surface roughness of the coatings were measured and compared across all parameters. The porosity decreases notably (1.2% to 0.25%) and the hardness increases (410HV to 465 HV) with the increase in gas temperature and pressure. The results indicate that temperature has a larger effect on the coating properties compared to the pressure and that deformation has an important role in bonding.

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) has proposed the concept of a deep geological repository (DGR) for the storage of Canada’s used nuclear fuel. A major engineered component is the used fuel container (UFC) consisting of a steel core coated with copper for corrosion resistance. The copper coating is required to have sufficient ductility and adhesion strength to the steel substrate for loading requirements under DGR conditions. The NWMO has identified two coating technologies for the application process: electrodeposition and cold spray. Electrodeposition is utilized to coat the bulk of the UFC components (i.e., hemi-spherical head and lower assembly). A portion of the hemi-spherical head and the lower assembly openings remain uncoated in order to facilitate the final assembly closure weld process after fuel loading. This area is then cold sprayed with copper to complete the coating on the steel. Since the cold sprayed coating is highly strained in the as-sprayed state, it requires a heat treatment to impart ductility. The ductility is assessed indirectly by measuring the hardness of the material before and after the heat treatment. A recent advancement on this front includes the implementation of an optimized band heat treatment method to prototype UFC’s.

Cold-sprayed copper coatings tend to be brittle and their electrical conductivity is inferior to that of the bulk material. In order to solve these problems, conventionally, it has been attempted to recover the metallic structure by heat treatment. This study, however, focuses on the effects of phosphorus and tin with the aim of improving cold spray copper coatings by optimizing the impurity content of Cu powder. It is shown that, by adjusting the content of P and Sn, dense copper coatings can be obtained with high ductility and electrical conductivity equal to that of the bulk material.

The application of metallic foam core sandwich structures in engineering components has been of particular interest in recent years because of their unique mechanical and thermal properties. Thermal spraying of the skin on the foam structure has recently been employed as a novel cost-efficient method for fabrication of these structures from refractory materials with complex shapes that could not otherwise be easily fabricated. The mechanical behavior of these structures under flexural loading is important in most applications. Previous studies have suggested that heat treatment of the thermally sprayed sandwich structures could improve the ductility of the skins and so affect the failure mode. In the present study the mechanical behavior of sandwich beams prepared from arc sprayed alloy 625 skin on 40 ppi nickel foam was characterized under four point bending. The ductility of the arc sprayed alloy 625 coatings was improved after heat treatment at 1100°C and 900°C while the yield point was reduced. Heat treatment of the sandwich beams reduced the danger of catastrophic failure.

This study evaluates the corrosion and wear resistance of WC-Co coatings produced by cold gas and HVOF spraying. Three WC-Co cermet powders varying in cobalt content were deposited on aluminum alloy substrates by both methods. The powders were characterized based on microstructure, particle size distribution, and phase composition, and the coatings based on cross-sectional microstructure, phase composition, and Vickers hardness. The coatings are also compared based on the results of ball-on-disk, rubber-wheel, and electrochemical testing, which shows that CGS has several advantages over HVOF spraying for the deposition of WC-Co coatings.

The FeAl intermetallic compound offers a combination of attractive properties such as thermal barrier, good strength at intermediate temperatures and an excellent corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures under oxidizing, carburizing and sulfidizing atmospheres. So they have attracted considerable attention as potential candidates for structural and coatings applications at elevated temperatures. However, the application of these intermetallics has been limited due to lack of deposition techniques and their low ductility at room temperature. To overcome the drawbacks we apply Low Pressure Cold Spray (LPCS) with following sintering for improving coating ductility and structure. The aim of this paper is to present the first results of FeAl intermetallic compound synthesis with this technique. A CS deposit is built up by the successive impact of individual powder particles that are the ‘‘building blocks’’ of the deposit. Sintering is applied to utilize reactions between the particles and obtain complex intermetallic compound. The microstructures and properties of the coatings were characterized by SEM, EDX and thermal diffusivity tests to define the structure formation mechanisms.

Solid-particle erosion of metals and alloys at elevated temperatures is one of the main reasons of the damage of components used in the energy production and utilization industries. Application of protective coating systems can be an attractive and economically reasonable solution for preventing the failure and increasing the durability of the components working in severe conditions of high-temperature corrosion and erosion. However, thermal spraying of intermetallic materials that have excellent high-temperature corrosion resistance is limited because of their low ductility. Present work reports the results of the investigation of abrasion wear resistance at elevated temperatures of combined coatings, which include the intermetallic layer. Such iron aluminide layers have been formed as a result of diffusion during the heat post-treatment of arc-prayed metallic coatings combining Fe- and Al-based layers. Post-treatment of arc-sprayed coatings was carried out by means of infrared radiation and induction heating. It was shown that the abrasion resistance of the developed coating tested at elevated temperatures (T > 500 °C) is considerably higher than that of low-alloyed steel and some nickel-based alloys and depends on the test load condition. The high performance of intermetallic-based graded coatings at elevated temperatures makes them interesting for applications as a low-cost erosion-corrosion-resistant material.

During the deposition of metallic cold sprayed coatings, it could be observed that only a thin layer is formed on the substrate and further building-up of a thick coating is not enabled. As for other thermal spray techniques, the formation of cold sprayed coatings can be divided to two stages: the creation of the first layer onto the substrate and the building-up of the coating itself onto as-sprayed layers. This two-stage build-up process was evidenced according the study of two Ti-6Al-4V powders exhibiting different characteristics (particle size, morphology, oxygen content, hardness, etc) which were sprayed by cold gas dynamic spraying onto substrates of different nature with various hardnesses (Ti-6Al-4V, AISI 304L, Al-alloy 2017). The phenomenology of the two-stage process is investigated in the present study. Cold spray conditions with pure nitrogen or pure helium as processes gas were applied to achieve a significant difference for particle velocities. The first stage of the process was completed by both powders with the formation of a first coating layer onto the various substrates. However, very different features for particle-substrate interactions (penetration depth and comparative deformation) were observed. For the particle-particle interaction (the second stage of the process), despite similar spraying conditions for both powders, the results were completely different since the formation of thick coating was achieved only with one of the powders. It was found that the intrinsic ductility of the material powder is the main parameter to promote the successful completion of both stages in order to achieve thick coatings.

Plasma sprayed chromium oxides coatings have been widely applied in anilox rolls and pump seal for many years. This paper is researching the effect of nanostructured Cr 2 O 3 5SiO 2 3TiO 2 composite powder preparation when adding nano-size SiO 2 and TiO 2 powder in Cr 2 O 3 powder, to prepare for through spray drying, high temperature sintering and flame density. The microstructure of powder and plasma sprayed coating are analyzed by SEM and XRD, compared with pure Cr 2 O 3 powder and METCO 136F powder. The Microhardness of the coatings are measured by 402MVA TM Vickers hardness tester. Fracture test is used to analysis the ductility of coatings, and the fracture appearance is analyzed by SEM. The result indicates that the mechanical behaviors of nanostructured Cr 2 O 3 5SiO 2 3TiO 2 coating has better performance in the nature of hardness and ductility.

Perovskites are considered as potential materials in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) for different reasons at different parts of the fuel cells. Perovskites such as La 0.8 Sr 0.2 MnO 3 (LSM) and other compositions are electrically conductive which is necessary for SOFC applications. One possible application is protection coating for interconnect plates (bipolar plate) to avoid chromium oxide evaporation from the surface of ferritic stainless steel. Different commercial and experimental perovskite powders were sprayed by plasma and HVOF spraying under different spray conditions. Spraying of pervoskites was found to be challenging and required careful parameter optimization in both spray methods. Microstructure and phase structure of the coatings were investigated. A very fine crack structure, possibly caused by low mechanical strength and low ductility of the compounds, was easily formed in coatings prepared by plasma and HVOF spraying. Spraying method, parameters and spraying atmospheres were found to affect the stability of the perovskite compounds due to low chemical stability at high spray temperatures. Oxygen deficiency or oxygen surplus was concluded to cause distortion of the compounds crystal structure, causing thus shifting of XRD-peaks due to change of lattice parameters. Electric conductivity was affected by the crystal structure.

An earlier study reported an investigation of the mechanical properties of cold sprayed aluminum and the effect of annealing on those properties. In that study, cold spray coatings approximately one centimeter thick were prepared using three different feedstock powders: Valimet H-10, Valimet H-20, and Brodmann Flomaster. ASTM E8 tensile specimens were machined from these coatings. Each material was tested in two conditions: as-sprayed and after a 300°C, 22 hour air anneal. The as-sprayed material showed a high ultimate strength and low ductility, < 1% elongation. The annealed samples showed a reduction in the ultimate strength but a dramatic increase in ductility, up to 10% elongation. Microstructural examinations and fractography clearly showed a change in the fracture mechanism between the as-sprayed and annealed material, but insufficient data was available to conclusively explain the ductility increase at that time. Since then, Kikuchi mapping of the Valimet H-10 material in the as-sprayed and annealed conditions has been conducted. Kikuchi mapping allows indexing of grains, identification of grain boundaries, and phase identification using backscattered diffraction patterns in an SEM. The data shows that significant recrystallization within the splats upon annealing has occurred. No significant crystal growth across splat boundaries is observed. The data demonstrate that the mechanism of ductility increase in annealed cold spray deposits is recrystallization of the base aluminum material.

Deposition of copper by cold gas dynamic spraying has attracted much interest in recent years because of the capability to deposit low porosity oxide free coatings. However, it is generally found that as-deposited copper has a significantly greater hardness, and potentially lower ductility, than bulk material. This paper will describe work undertaken to investigate the effect of annealing heat treatments on the structure and mechanical properties of freestanding cold sprayed copper. After de-bonding from substrates these tracks were annealed for one hour at a range of temperatures up to 600 °C. Optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were all employed to examine the microstructure. The peak widths in XRD were analysed according to the Hall – Williamson method so that changes in grain size and microstrain (i.e. dislocation content) could be quantified. Mechanical behaviour of the deposits was studied by microhardness measurements and tensile testing. The influences of annealing on mechanical properties are rationalised in terms of microstructure evolution and its effect on strengthening and recrystallization mechanisms in metals. The softening behaviour of cold sprayed Cu is explained considering the low stacking fault energy of Cu and the possibility of dynamic recystallization occurring during spraying.

Cold spraying is a novel coating method in which coating is formed by mechanical deformation of sprayed metal particles. This heavy deformation causes structures, which need recrystallization heat-treatment in order to gain back the materials natural deformability. Aluminum, copper, nickel and Ni-20%Cr were cold sprayed and heat-treated at several temperatures. Coatings were sprayed using nitrogen as process gas. Substrate material was carbon steel. Heat-treatment temperatures were chosen from near room temperature to below coating materials melting temperature. As-sprayed and heat-treated coatings were characterized in microstructure, hardness, phase structure and electrical resistivity. It was found that 200ºC was enough to increase electric conductivity to 87% of pure copper. By heat treatment ductility was able to be increased and hardness subsequently decreased.

Lightweight materials play a special role thanks to their low density. In recent years considerable development has been conducted using Al, Mg and their alloys. The increasing use of these materials enlarges the requirements related to the high wear resistance accompanied by good formability and ductility as well as the high corrosion resistance. A fulfillment of such demands can be attained through surface treatments. Among the currently available wide variety of surface treatment processes thermal spraying techniques play an important role. This study presents a comparison of light weight materials coated through Detonation-Gun and Atmospheric Plasma Spraying Processes. The influence of coating parameters, coating type and coating thickness on tribological properties are studied. The behavior of coatings under different bending angle regarding cohesion and adhesion is analyzed. Corresponding SEM- and LM-analyses are conducted to understand the underlying mechanisms.

This paper describes variations in the microstructure/composition and mechanical properties in plasma sprayed CoCrAlY coatings and a modified Rene 80 substrate of gas turbine blades operated for 21000 h under liquefied natural gas fuels. Substantial oxidation/carbonization occurred in near surface coatings of concave blades but not in convex coatings. Aluminum and nickel/titanium rich nitrides formed in concave coatings and substrates adjacent to the interface, respectively. Small punch (SP) specimens were prepared in order that the specimen surface would be located in the near surface and interface regions of the concave and convex coatings. In SP tests, brittle cracks in the near surface and interface coatings of the concave blade initiated at low strains up to 950 °C. The convex coatings had higher ductility than the concave coatings and substrate and showed a rapid increase in the ductility above 800 °C. Thus it is apparent that the oxidation/carbonization and nitridation in the concave coatings produced a significant loss of the ductility. The in-service degradation mechanism of the CoCrAlY coatings is discussed in light of the operating temperature distribution and compared to that of CoNiCrAlY coatings induced by grain boundary sulfidation/oxidation.