Cold spray formation of thin metal coatings
First Claim
1. A metal agglomerated hard sphere composition capable of providing about a 1 μ
- m or thicker coating of a metal on a work piece in a cold spray process comprising;
a plurality of non-ductile hard spheres, said spheres comprised essentially of material characterized by an elongation at break of less than 7% at room temperature, and further characterized by an average sphere diameter of about 10 to 300 μ
m; and
about 0.1 to about 20 wt % metal powder comprising a plurality of metal particles characterized by an average particle size of about 10 nm to about 10 μ
m, said plurality of metal particles being agglomerated onto said hard spheres.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to an adaptation of the cold spray process to provide a method of coating fine metal particles, including aluminum and copper, onto a work piece. In one embodiment, the invention is a metal agglomerated hard sphere composition capable of providing about a 1 micron or thicker coating of a metal on a work piece in a cold spray process. In another embodiment the invention is a method of coating metal particles, including metal particles having a particle size of about 0.01 to about 10 micron, onto a work piece. The method of the invention circumvents many of the problems associated with cold spray processing of very fine particles.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. A metal agglomerated hard sphere composition capable of providing about a 1 μ
- m or thicker coating of a metal on a work piece in a cold spray process comprising;
a plurality of non-ductile hard spheres, said spheres comprised essentially of material characterized by an elongation at break of less than 7% at room temperature, and further characterized by an average sphere diameter of about 10 to 300 μ
m; and
about 0.1 to about 20 wt % metal powder comprising a plurality of metal particles characterized by an average particle size of about 10 nm to about 10 μ
m, said plurality of metal particles being agglomerated onto said hard spheres. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
- m or thicker coating of a metal on a work piece in a cold spray process comprising;
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12. A method of coating metal particles, including metal particles having a particle size of about 0.01 to about 10 μ
- m, onto a work piece surface with cold spray processing, comprising;
mixing, into a gas stream characterized by a working pressure and working temperature, a metal agglomerated hard sphere composition to provide a particle-gas stream, wherein said metal agglomerated hard sphere composition comprises a plurality of non-ductile hard spheres, said spheres comprised essentially of material characterized by an elongation at break of less than 7% at room temperature, and further characterized by an average sphere diameter of about 10 to 300 μ
m; and
about 0.1 to about 20 wt % metal powder comprising a plurality of metal particles characterized by an average particle size of about 10 nm to about 10 μ
m, said plurality of metal particles being agglomerated onto said hard spheres;
accelerating said particle-gas stream into a supersonic jet; and
directing said supersonic jet onto a work piece, wherein said metal agglomerated hard sphere composition impinges said work piece surface at sufficient velocity to deposit said metal particles from said non-ductile hard spheres onto said work piece surface, thereby coating said work piece surface with a desired thickness of metal particles to provide a metal coating. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
- m, onto a work piece surface with cold spray processing, comprising;
Specification