Commercial Cold Spray Equipment and Automation

Abstract

There are two main methods of injecting the powder feedstock into the gas stream: downstream and upstream injection. These methods came about from two different development threads, as explained in Chap. 1 as well as, in more detail, in the last chapter of this book. These distinct threads equally produced two distinct families of commercial equipment, each one with its own unique attributes and challenges. Commercial cold spray equipment became available in the late 1990s with a surge of machine suppliers, many have already dissolved, and many others are well established today. This chapter describes the latest commercially deployed equipment as of the time of this writing, so keep in mind that the rapid evolution of cold spray technology may likely result in the availability of more advanced equipment by the time the book is published. The chapter discusses fundamental machine design features of each one of the families which determines their capacity, portability, applicability, and cost. As every cold spray application requires a unique set of conditions for it to be viable, each type of equipment poses advantages and disadvantages; therefore, proper equipment selection represents the best engineering practice in order to obtain the best results from cold spray technology. The last section of the chapter describes the options for equipment automation as it applies to typical applications of the cold spray technology.