Structures and properties of laser-assisted cold-sprayed aluminum coatings

In the cold spray process, solid particles impact on a surface with high kinetic energy, deform plastically and form a coating. This enables the formation of pure and dense coating structures. Even more, coating performance and deposition efficiency can be improved by assisting the process with a laser. Laser-assisted cold spraying (LACS) has shown its potential to improve coating properties compared with traditional cold spraying. In this study, coating quality improvement was obtained by using a co-axial laser spray (COLA) process which offers a new, cost-effective laser-assisted cold spray technique, for high-quality deposition and repair. In the COLA process, the sprayed surface is laser heated while particles hit the surface. This assists the better bonding between particles and substrate and leads to the formation of tight coating structures. This study focuses on the evaluation of the microstructural characteristics and mechanical properties (e.g., hardness and bond strength) of LACS metallic coatings.