Thermal spray (TS) technology has attracted the attention of numerous industrial sectors due to its apparent simplicity and versatility. It has been used across the world for over 80 years in the conservation and creation of art. Despite the creativity involved in the creation of an art piece, the TS artistic endeavors are limited and insufficiently explored. Unique material combinations, usually not observed in conventional engineering applications, can be achieved with TS technology. Although the material amalgamation possibilities are infinite, their combined deposited characteristics, interfacial compatibility and color palette require further study. In this work, the fields of photography, image processing and TS are combined to produce a large art-piece using the cold gas dynamic spray (CGDS) process. Aluminum, zinc, nickel, alumina, steel and titanium alloy powders are sprayed to replicate in three-dimensions a photograph of a crinoid from the Silurian period found on the Anticosti Island, located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. The numerous steps required to produce the artistic 3D piece, namely numerical segmentation of the photograph, conversion to a computer-assisted design (CAD), manufacturing of steel masks and CGDS deposition of the selected powders to reach the sought color palette are described. Powder deposition efficiency, material compatibility and microstructural characteristics are analyzed. and the resulting art piece is presented.

This paper describes and evaluates the performance of a Helium Recovery System (HRS) designed for cold spraying. A flexible, automated, full scale HRS system has been designed and installed in the McGill Aerospace Materials & Alloy Development Center Cold Spray Facility, located at and in collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada. The fully automated HRS has been designed to recover helium from the cold spray chamber with sufficient purity (>99%) and flow capacity (5 to 220 Nm 3 /h), allowing for a cost-effective operation by insuring a recovery rate of above 85%. In addition, a comparison of titanium coating properties obtained by using both He and N 2 as propellant gas is presented.