An Overview of Cold Spray Technique

Abstract

The Cold spray or cold gas dynamic spraying is the new progressive step in the direction of development of high kinetic energy coating processes. The cold spray is a method for coating substrates under atmospheric conditions. In this process micron sized solid particles are accelerated and transported to substrates by means of supersonic free jets. Upon impacting the substrates, particles stick to the surface and form coatings which possess very low porosity. The paper outlines the principles involved in cold spray method and the equipment used for the technique. The cold spray method is related to classical thermal spray methods but it has some interesting additional features, which has been discussed in the paper. A fundamental feature of cold spray method i.e. concept of critical velocity along with the plausible mechanism theory responsible for the deposition of coating has been discussed briefly. Successful applications of cold spray process and its environment friendly aspect has been elaborated. It is reported that well founded cold spray technology will be able to compete for a good market share of VPS/PVD coatings in various fields like power, electronic/electrical, biotechnology, turbines and other industries. The cold spray process is still primarily in the research and development stage and only now becoming commercially available, and has been accepted as a new and novel thermal spray technique mainly in developed countries. The technology has great potential for future research especially with reference to its application to real industrial solution.