Engineering and Software System Solutions, Inc. (ES3)
The cold spray industry has been successfully implementing cold spray technology using nitrogen and helium gas for dimensional restoration of worn or corroded aircraft components for the past few decades. Repair needs are shifting to cold spray repairs that can recover structural life of components. Helium gas is typically required for structural repairs, as helium produces higher particle velocities needed to achieve higher bond strengths. These higher bond strengths result from higher particle deformation. However, helium is inherently more expensive than nitrogen and since helium availability can be restricted, repair schedules and mission readiness can be impacted. Thus, there is a need for a reduced or non-helium system that can deposit coatings with properties similar to those produced by helium-based systems. Most emerging non-helium cold spray technologies focus on increasing particle speed (hydrogen gas usage) or temperature (next generation systems). Instead, Laser Assisted Cold Spray (LACS) increases the deposit temperature. LACS utilizes an in situ laser to preheat a substrate/deposit just before particles land. Much like the faster helium particles, a higher energy substrate/deposit allows particles to deform more upon impact, increasing mechanical strength. To this end, ES3 is using LACS with nitrogen to achieve helium properties at reduced cost.
