Metal Passivization to Resist Corrosion

Development of new, low-cost, environmentally friendly, anti-corrosion system to provide passive protection of steel structural features is critical for many industries including ship construction. This problem is especially important in case of protectionof limited spatial areas associated with manufacturing and repairing processes such as joining, fastening, welding, etc. Currently used shipbuilding preservation systems are based predominantly on polymer coatings. Polymer coatings cause many problemsbecause they perform very poorly when heat is applied. This proposal presents a new technology, still under development, that looks promising to apply high quality, corrosion resistant metal coatings, in limited spatial areas which react to heat much thesame as the steel base metal does. The technology is based on using the Cold Spray process avoiding undesired effects inherent to polymer based systems as well as conventional thermal spray methods. A brief summary of the problems associated with existingpolymer and thermal spray coating technologies is presented, a new concept of metal passivation based on using the Cold Spray process is described. The ability of Cold Sprayed corrosion resistant coatings for manufacturing and repairing different partsincluding spraying in field conditions on limited spatial areas would have numerous industry and military applications. Applications where low-cost, high quality, environmentally friendly, corrosion resistant coatings are demanded include aerospace,automotive, transportation, chemical, construction, oil and gas, shipbuilding, and others. Additionally, a market to sell equipment to spray corrosion resistant coatings using the Cold Spray process would emerge to compete with many of the polymer (paint)and thermal spray technologies stimulating the economy.