Activating NAVSEA Sustainment Efforts through Qualification of Cold Spray Coating Repairs & Additive Parts

NAVSEA is lacking qualified procedures and innovative feedstock materials to cold spray repair components taken out of service due to wear and corrosion. In particular, the hydraulic cylinders of accumulator pistons regularly experience damage to the hard chrome coating. Incumbent technologies like chromium plating are not field deployable and require the use of hexavalent chromium for processing, a hazardous material and known carcinogen which the DoD has developed policies to restrict its use. Solvus Global will demonstrate the ability to achieve equivalent performance (mechanical properties and wear resistance) to hard chrome coatings using engineered cermet powders consolidated using cold spray. Simulated cold spray repairs of hydraulic accumulators will be conducted and a data package will be provided that encompasses the information needed for a qualified spray procedure (QSP). In later phases, in-field repairs will be performed using this data package on actual parts with the support of Penn State’s Applied Research Lab (see LoS) and NAVSEA 05T. For the phase I option, Solvus Global will additionally expand on development efforts to qualify the production of cold spray additive cupronickel (C96400) parts to augment a vulnerable casting supply chain.