Powder Morphology Effect Assessment on Cold Spray Process for Repair and Additive Manufacturing Applications

Cold Spray is a coating additive manufacturing process relying on the particle kinetic, with particles plastically deforming upon impact with the substrate and adhering to it. While the production of thin aluminum/aluminum alloys coatings (below 1mm) by Cold Spray is fairly common, the production of thick coatings (> 1mm) and large net-shape parts has been more challenging. Equispheres patent-pending atomization technology produces free-flowing, uniform spherical metal powders, with narrow particle size distribution, excellent sphericity and flowability. As such, it is envisioned that their process could be used to produce aluminum feedstock powders with the proper specifications to prevent any of the issues encountered when trying to produce thick aluminum coatings/parts by Cold Spray.
The general program objective is to study, evaluate and compare the potential of various commercially available aluminum feedstock powders (including Equispheres) to be used in the Cold Spray process to produce dense thick coatings.TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Bertrand Jodoin

Student:

Daniel MacDonald

Partner:

Equispheres

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Advanced manufacturing

University:

University of Ottawa