Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying of Aluminum: The Role of Substrate Characteristics in Deposit Formation

Abstract

Aluminum powder of 99.7 wt.% purity and in the nominal particle size range of −75+15 µm has been sprayed onto a range of substrates by cold gas dynamic spraying (cold spraying) with helium, at room temperature, as the accelerating gas. The substrates examined include metals with a range of hardness, polymers, and ceramics. The substrate surfaces had low roughness (R a < 0.1 µm) before deposition of aluminum in an attempt to separate effects of mechanical bonding from other forms of bonding, such as chemical or metallurgical bonding. The cross-sectional area of a single track of aluminum sprayed onto the substrate was taken as a measure of the ease of initiation of deposition, assuming that once a coating had begun to deposit onto a substrate, its growth would occur at a constant rate regardless of substrate type. It has been shown that initiation of deposition depends critically upon substrate type. For metals where initiation was not easy, small aluminum particles were deposited preferentially to large ones (due to their higher impact velocities); these may have acted as an interlayer to promote further building of the coating. A number of phenomena have been observed following spraying onto various substrates, such as substrate melting, substrate and particle deformation, and evidence for the formation of a metal-jet (akin to that seen in explosive welding). Such phenomena have been related to the processes occurring during impact of the particles on the substrate. Generally, initiation of aluminum deposition was poor for nonmetallic materials (where no metallic bonding between the particle and substrate was possible) and for very soft metals (in the case of tin, melting of the substrate was observed). Metallic substrates harder than the aluminum particles generally promoted deposition, although deposition onto aluminum alloy was difficult due to the presence of a tenacious oxide layer. Initiation was seen to be rapid on hard metallic substrates, even when deformation of the substrate was not visible.