Cold Gas Spray (CGS) of Polymeric Materials

Cold Gas Spray (CGS) is a Thermal Spray technology, characterized by the application and deposition of powder raw material in solid-state, at temperatures below its melting point, and supersonic or near-supersonic velocities. In such conditions of temperature and speed, during the impact, the solid particles plastically deform and adhere to the substrate and themselves, to form an overlay deposit or coating. Since its beginning, Cold Gas Spray technology has been developed, implemented and used mainly to deposit metallic materials, leaving its research with other materials, like polymers, almost in their initial stage. Consequently, there are many aspects in the equipment design, process and deposition mechanisms, and material characteristics, to be investigated, in order to obtain an efficient and effective polymeric coating with this technique. The Thermal Spray Center (CPT) is studying the feasibility of the CGS technology to be used to deposit polymeric materials, focusing specially on the fundamental aspects of their deposition process. In this work, CPT presents its last results in the comprehension, application and characterization of polymeric coatings by Cold Gas Spray. The powder raw material and the polymeric coatings were analyzed by means LS (laser scattering), TGA, DSC, XRD, optical microscopy and SEM.