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Effects of Process Parameters on Cold Spray Deposition of Al-6061 Alloy

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Abstract

The effects of several cold spray process parameters on deposition efficiency and bonding quality of Al-6061 powder on the same material were investigated. Single particles were deposited at different particle impact velocities, nozzle-orientations, and nozzle travel speeds. Thick multilayer deposits were prepared to evaluate the effects of substrate surface finish and nozzle-orientation on deposition efficiency and bonding strength. Microstructural evaluation was performed on both deposited single particles and multilayer thick deposits by using optical microscopy, SEM, and TEM. It was confirmed that bonding occurs in peripheral regions of the splats, while only partial bonding develops at the polar region even at high impact velocities. Further, there is a critical spray angle below which no deposition takes place. This critical spray angle depends on nozzle travel speed and the duration of spray. A new method for substrate surface preparation was proposed by spraying at angles below the critical spray angle with the same powder prior to coating. Using low angle spraying as a surface preparation strategy provides a bonding strength of 54 MPa as compared to 22 MPa obtained for grit blasted substrates. Spray angle also affects deposition efficiency, porosity, and microstructure. Reducing the spray angle from 90° to 30° results in decreasing the deposition efficiency from 48 to 16%, increasing the porosity from 0.84 to 1.36%, and changing the microstructure from tightly bonded microstructure into columnar microstructure with porosity developed at inter-columnar regions.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been partially sponsored by a partnership with NAVSEA 04 and the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences under contract number 2020129-142021 to Northeastern University. The findings and opinions expressed in this paper are solely of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the sponsors, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ahmad Nourian, Tricia Schwartz, Samuel Boese & Sinan Müftü

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Nourian, A., Schwartz, T., Boese, S. et al. Effects of Process Parameters on Cold Spray Deposition of Al-6061 Alloy. J Therm Spray Tech 31, 2517–2536 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-022-01456-3

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