Cold spray metal coating of wood for cabinet making applications

Thermal spray technology has been widely used in the last decades for creating coatings onto metal substrates. This study is focused on an original metal-wood assembly obtained by cold spray. A constant correlation between experimental and numerical tests has been adopted to assess and improve the possibilities of this coupling. First, the analysis of geometrical features of the wood structure at the microscale was necessary to identify the properties of the deposition surface. Next, a wide range of cold spray tests was conducted to obtain metal coatings onto four species of wood. To better understand the dependency of deposition efficiency for the process from particle state conditions, a computational fluid-dynamics tool is in development to compute particle speed and temperature. Then, a series of finite element simulations of single and multiparticle impacts onto local structures of the wood, as observed from SEM and microtomography images of the specimens. A classical pull-off test of the specimen has been used to collect data about adhesion strength and behavior. A numerical counterpart of the test has been developed. Enabling the comparison of macroscopic adhesion behaviour of the real interfaces with that of virtual interfaces.