Material properties of thick aluminum coating made by cold gas dynamic spray deposition

Abstract

Cold gas dynamic spray is a relatively new coating process by which coatings can be produced without significant heating during the process. Cold gas dynamic spray is conducted by powder sprayed using supersonic gas jet, and generally called the kinetic spray or cold spray. Its low process temperature can minimize the thermal stress and also reduce the deformation of the substrate. In this study, thick or macro scale deposition was studied while most researches on cold-spray have focused on micro scale coating. Measured material properties of macro scale deposition layer showed that elastic modulus and hardness were lower and electrical resistivity was higher than those of reference substrate material. The main causes of changed material properties were investigated by FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope) and EDS (Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer) data. In this result, porous micro structure generated by imperfect plastic deformation might cause decrease in elastic modulus and hardness of the deposition layer by cold spray, and oxidized Al particles increased the electrical resistivity.