PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF METALLIC COATINGS BY PORTABLE HIGH PRESSURE COLD SPRAY SYSTEM

Cold sprayed coatings have found many potential applications in many high tech industries. A portable system is required in a few applications such as in-situ repair of aircraft body/engine parts, etc.. In order to cater to these requirements, a ‘Portable High Pressure Cold Spray (PHPCS) system’, called KINETIKS 2000-2 has been developed. This system is capable of producing 400 C nitrogen gas jet at 20 bars max gas pressure, and can produce high quality coatings of many materials including aluminum, copper, zinc, etc. Four different aluminum alloys, copper, titanium and nickel coatings were produced using both nitrogen and helium as processes gases. These coatings were characterized with respect to their microstructure, bond strength, microhardness, etc. This paper presents the details and results of this experimental study.