Dimensional Restoration of Aircraft Components Damaged by Corrosion

ABSTRACT:The U.S. Air Force (USAF) typically requires restoration of corrosion affected aircraft components in hard to access areas. 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 will inspect, clean, and then apply Corrosion Preventative Compounds to prevent/reduce additional corrosion, but limited access and/or complex part geometries hinder dimensional restoration in some applications.Additionally, these traditional repair techniques may utilize and/or produce hazardous materials and waste.Consequently, ES3 will develop a new cold spray repair technique designed to be portable, MIL-Spec approved, and provide controlled dimensional restoration using an environmentally-friendly, corrosion resistant coating application for limited access areas.In Phase II, ES3 will conduct testing identified during the Phase I effort to accomplish successful development and validation required for future implementation of the low-/mid- pressure (up to 250 psi) cold spray repair applications for typical 7XXX, 6XXX and 2XXX series aluminum and magnesium substrates, conduct a Demonstration/Validation on aircraft components, and draft a cold spray application specification in USAF format.Subject cold spray development will focus on portable repair techniques that can be used at depot and field level activities.BENEFIT:Validation testing conducted for this effort will focus on the evaluation and development of the low to mid-pressure cold spray applications for repair of 7XXX, 6XXX and 2XXX series aluminum and magnesium aircraft structure for dimensional restoration of areas damaged by corrosion.The following list potential benefits ES3 expects from use of the low to mid-pressure cold spray repair applications based on both industry and in-house research:Dimensional restoration capability for limited access areasDepot (fixed) and Field (portable) level repair capabilityCorrosion resistance improvementsWear resistance improvementsEnvironmentally-friendly process