Cold Spray Repair of Precipitation Hardened Aluminum Alloys

Cold spray is a solid state deposition method with the potential to deliver load-bearing repairs for high value aluminum and magnesium alloy components without introducing a heat-affected zone (HAZ) in the substrate. The repair deposits are oxide-free.

One of the key factors contributing to the successful cold spray deposition of aluminum alloys is the ability to tailor the cold spray powder consumable, particularly its metallurgical properties, phase composition, oxygen content and surface state.

This presentation will provide an update on TWI and PSI’s recent work to develop novel thermal powder processing techniques to achieve high integrity cold spray deposits using precipitation hardenable aluminum alloy powders.