Characterization of Cold Sprayed Copper Coatings on Al Alloy Substrate

1. Introduction

Surface treatment procedures are used to modify the surface properties of various materials without altering their bulk characteristics. These techniques are used within industrial environments to improve resistance to corrosion, wear, fatigue, and heat. A comparison of competitive spraying technologies clearly shows that cold gas dynamic spraying has been established as a viable coating technology in the thermal spray processes family. The dense and oxide-free coatings that may be produced through Gas Dynamic Spraying (GDS) have brought about a multitude of new applications which, up to now, have not been feasible using traditional processes (Jeandin et al., 2014). The practical solutions may be readily observed within automotive and electronics manufacturing industries. However, despite this great progress, the full potential of high-pressure and low-pressure GDS has not yet been fully realized (Maev & Leshchynsky, 2008 and Bala et al., 2014). Cold spray coatings may be classified as high-pressure cold spray and low pressure cold spray on the basis of the stagnation pressure of the working gas. Table 1 makes a comparison of two versions of the cold spray process according to operating parameters.