Dimensional Restoration of Aircraft Components Damaged by Corrosion

NAVAIR aircraft and ground support equipment typically require restoration of structure and components damaged by corrosion, wear, and other surface defects. These aircraft structure and components are typically manufactured from aluminum substrates, as well as other alloys like magnesium, titanium, and low alloy, PH and CRES steels. Current repair techniques inspect, clean, and then apply Corrosion Preventative Compounds to prevent/reduce corrosion, but do not provide dimensional restoration. Additionally, these traditional repair techniques may utilize and/or produce hazardous materials and waste. Consequently, ES3 has been developing cold spray repair coatings and application techniques, robotic and handheld, MIL-Spec approved, that provide dimensional restoration using environmentally-friendly, corrosion resistant coating applications. ES3 successfully completed US Air Force SBIR topic AF131-190 Phase I and II efforts meeting its primary goal of development, demonstration and validation required for future implementation of the low-/mid- pressure (up to 250 psi) cold spray repair applications for typical aluminum and magnesium substrates. Additionally, ES3 conducted Demonstration/Validation on aircraft components and drafted a cold spray application specification in USAF format. The subject cold spray development has been with both robotic and handheld repair techniques that can be used at depot and field level activities. Robins AFB has notified ES3 of it's