Mon, 07 October, 2024
TWI Industrial Members are invited to join a new research project to improve and industrialise the use of cold spray to repair components, thereby saving the time, cost, and environmental impact of installing new parts in assets and structures.
Many components are retired from service due to relatively minor damage resulting from corrosion, wear or foreign object damage. However, a reliable, repeatable, and cost-effective repair strategy to quickly put components back into service could solve this issue, creating significant cost savings, increased utilisation where platforms are able to remain in service for longer, as well as reducing the emissions associated with replacing parts with new builds.
About the Joint Industry Project (JIP)
The soon-to-launch, ‘Improving and Industrialising Cold Spray Repair’ joint industry project will investigate a route to repair structures that would have been challenging with conventional methods, providing enhanced efficiencies for repair processes. The project outcomes will result in potential cost savings, waste reduction, decreased requirements for spares/inventory, and increased uptime of equipment/platforms.
We will also create structured frameworks to help you to make informed decisions about repair options, improving decision-making processes, optimising resource allocation, and saving you the time and costs associated with qualifying and approving new repairs.
Companies that join the project will not only benefit from exclusive access to this research, but will be able to help shape the direction of this research to suit their needs, while also spreading the cost of the work between them. As such, the project will provide a common framework alongside adaptable document packs tailored to individual needs.
Why Cold Spray?
Current welding/fusion-based repair methods for metallic components alter the underlying microstructure of the material due to the unavoidable use of heat. This often leads to a degradation of mechanical properties and can cause residual stress, which can lead to unacceptable distortions or degrade the fatigue life of the part. Welding can also prove challenging for oxygen-sensitive materials like aluminium, magnesium and titanium, which require inert environments that are often impractical for repairs. Another alternative repair method is the use of polymer fillers (like epoxy), however these only offer limited mechanical properties, a restricted repair lifetime, and constrained upper temperature limits.
Cold spray avoids these difficulties as it is a solid-state deposition technology that results in little or no heat input, meaning that the original mechanical properties of the parent material are unaffected. In addition, it does not require the inert conditions required for welding oxygen-sensitive materials, while the resulting deposition generally results in compressive residual stresses that do not degrade the fatigue life of the component.
Variants of the process mean that cold spray is a highly flexible technique that allows for a range of materials to be cost-effectively deposited, at a high rate, making cold spray an excellent candidate for repairing high value components and returning them into service.
Cold Spray at TWI
TWI has been active in cold spray research since 2007, running R&D projects for our Industrial Members and leading large-scale programmes of work for government organisations, including pioneering new developments in powder modification and hybrid laser processes.
In the past 2 years, we have invested heavily in new cold spray equipment (>£1.5m) for our world-class facilities, including our newly commissioned TKF-1000. This is all brought together by our cold spray experts, whose deep technical knowledge and broad understanding of the process will allow us to explore the benefits that cold spray can bring to industrial repair and remanufacture.
Find Out More
To find out more about the scope of this project, including how you can join to access the exclusive research, repair frameworks, template repair instructions and understanding quality assurance tools to support your adoption of cold spray for repair, please follow the link, here.