Dimensional Restoration of Aircraft Components Damaged by Corrosion

ABSTRACT: The U.S. Air Force typically requires restoration of corrosion affected aircraft components in hidden and/or hard to access areas. These aircraft structure and components are typically manufactured from aluminum substrates, as well as other alloys like 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 I, ES3 will identify candidate part applications across the AFMC depots, develop cold spray nozzles for limited access applications for existing COTS Cold Spray equipment, develop low to mid pressure (up to 250 KSI) cold spray repair applications for typical 7XXX and 2XXX series aluminum substrates, and conduct a Demonstration/Validation on representative aircraft structure. Subject cold spray development will focus on repair techniques that can be used both at depot and field level activities with a portable application. BENEFIT: Research conducted for this effort will focus on the evaluation and development of the low to mid-pressure cold spray applications for repair of 7XXX and 2XXX series aluminum 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 areas Depot (fixed) and Field (portable) level repair capability Corrosion resistance improvements Wear resistance improvements Environmentally-friendly process