Cold spray produces superior coatings with many unique properties, which have led to many new applications of sprayed coatings. In a few applications, such as in-situ repair of aircraft body/engine parts, etc., a portable system is required. Though some portable low pressure (5 – 10 bars) systems are available, these systems have many limitations on coating materials and coating qualities. Recently a ‘Portable high pressure cold spray system’, called Kinetiks 2000, has been developed. Kinetiks 2000 system can operate at 400 °C max nitrogen temperature and 20 bars max gas pressure. A touch panel on the console is used to input and control the process parameters. A hand held gun with a filament heater and a gun body, mounted directly onto the heater, is used for manual spray. This system operates with two different powder hoppers. Coatings of many materials, including aluminum, copper, titanium, zinc, etc have been produced. Microstructural investigations of sprayed coatings have shown that good, strong, dense coatings with clean interfaces and strong bonding to various substrates can be produced. Experiments are continuing to quantify the process characteristics and record the properties of sprayed coatings.

Seven years after its introduction, the KINETIKS cold spray system from Cold Spray Technology GmbH is proving its reliability in various industrial applications. As pressure and temperature of the process gas are the primary parameters generating high particle velocities, the improvement respective development of the system family was focused on those. A further step of improving coating properties was the development of a powder preheating feature. Applications using this technology are now starting in a wide field from automotive up to aerospace products.

The industrial use of cold spraying started in 2001 with the introduction of the Kinetic 3000 Cold Spray System from CGT. The heater is designed for a 24-hour operation and has proved its reliability in several installations. The powder feeder can run at the high feed rate of the Kinetic 3000 and is easy to operate. The nozzle design changed from a simple double cone-type to the latest MOC shape. The presentation will give an overview of the state-of-the-art technology in cold spraying.