High Performance, Non-Helium Cold Spray

Cold spray manufacturing and repair processes are being adopted by the Navy to provide quality structural repairs to aircraft, vehicles, and ships through direct material deposition of metals like aluminum and titanium.Ā Particles of these metals use a carrier gas stream of helium to accelerate the particles to a critical velocity that achieves deposition and adhesion to a substrate under fabrication or repair. ĀHowever, helium represents a significant logistics barrier in both availability and cost.Ā As such, the Navy has a significant need to advance cold spray application technology that removes the need for helium from the process.Ā Lynntech is proposing the development of novel high performance, non-helium cold spray system that can deposit metals of interest of including aluminum, titanium, and high-strength steel to provide high quality repairs.Ā This process provides a high transfer efficiency, strong interfacial adhesion, and strong material reinforcement.Ā The proposed technology significantly advances the capabilities of cold spray and enables repair deployment beyond depots and shipyards to potential on-ship deployments through removing the logistics burden of current helium-based systems.