Effect of Secondary Component Properties when Cold Spraying Mixed Metal Powders on Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers

Tuesday, May 25, 2021: 9:30 AM
Mr. Andre C. Liberati , McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Dr. Hanqing Che , McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Dr. Phuong Vo , National Research Council Canada, Boucherville, QC, Canada
Prof. Stephen Yue , McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
In previous studies at McGill University, tin was successfully cold sprayed onto carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs). A “crack-filling” mechanism was described as the deposition mechanism that allowed deposition of tin onto the CFRP. Improving the coating conductivity for lightning strike protection (LSP) purposes was achieved by adding other metal powders (aluminum, copper, zinc) to tin and cold spraying on the CFRP. At the same time, it was noticed that the addition of this secondary component (SC) provided an increase in deposition efficiency (DE); tamping was initially hypothesized to explain this improvement, thus prompting a study solely on the effect of SC hardness, which is reported elsewhere in this conference. However, it is recognised that other powder characteristics may also be influencing the DE. Thus, in this study, SCs with a wider variety of particle sizes, morphologies, densities and hardness values were mixed with tin and sprayed on CFRPs. The effect of SC properties on tin deposition is discussed and an optimal combination of SC properties for cold spraying of tin is suggested.