SBIR-STTR Award

NAVSEA and NAVAIR ship, aircraft and ground support equipment typically require restoration of structure and components damaged by corrosion, wear, and other damage. Current repair techniques inspect, clean, and then apply Corrosion Preventative Compounds, but do not provide dimensional or structural restoration. Additionally, these traditional repair techniques may utilize and/or produce hazardous materials and waste. Consequently, ES3 has been successfully developing cold spray repair coatings and application techniques under SBIR Topic AF131-190, with the US Air Force (USAF) and US Navy with multiple low to high pressure cold spray systems, robotic and handheld, that provide dimensional restoration using environmentally-friendly, corrosion and/or wear resistant coating applications. Leveraging the success of these efforts, this NAVSEA and NAVAIR effort will focus on the development and testing of cold spray coatings on aluminum, magnesium and steel alloys for both dimensional and structural restoration with multiple powder coatings for various application requirements. This will include cold spray coating testing (including inspection techniques), processing and integration efforts of multiple cold spray systems with pure and mixed carrier gases, both handheld and robotic, in order to develop required technical data for NAVSEA and NAVAIR general authorization for sustainment.

Benefit:
Validation testing conducted for this effort will focus on the evaluation and development of the low to high pressure cold spray systems applications for repair of typical aircraft substrates utilized in NAVSEA and NAVAIR components for dimensional and structural restoration of damaged areas. The following list potential benefits ES3 expects from use of the cold spray repair applications based on both industry and in-house research: Dimensional and Structural restoration capability Depot (fixed) and Field (portable) level repair capability Corrosion resistance improvements Wear resistance improvements Environmentally-friendly process Economical spray process with mixed carrier gases

Keywords:
repair, repair, cold spray, Coatings, Dimensional and Structural Restoration

NAVSEA, USMC and NAVAIR ship, aircraft and ground support equipment typically require restoration of structure and components damaged by corrosion, wear, and other damage. Current repair techniques inspect, clean, and then apply Corrosion Preventative Compounds, but do not provide dimensional or structural restoration. Additionally, these traditional repair techniques may utilize and/or produce hazardous materials and waste. Consequently, ES3 has been successfully developing cold spray repair coatings and application techniques under SBIR Topic AF131-190, with the US Air Force (USAF) and US Navy with multiple low to high pressure cold spray systems, robotic and handheld, that provide dimensional restoration using environmentally-friendly, corrosion and/or wear resistant coating applications. Leveraging the success of the Phase I effort and other cold spray efforts, this Phase II effort will focus on the development and testing of cold spray coatings on various alloys for both dimensional and structural restoration with multiple powder coatings for various application requirements. This will include cold spray coating testing (including inspection techniques), processing and integration efforts of multiple cold spray systems with pure and mixed carrier gases, both handheld and robotic, in order to develop required technical data for NAVSEA, USMC and NAVAIR general authorization for sustainment.

Benefit:
Validation testing conducted for this effort will focus on the evaluation and development of the low to high pressure cold spray systems applications for repair of typical aircraft substrates utilized in NAVSEA, USMC and NAVAIR components for dimensional and structural restoration of damaged areas. The following list potential benefits ES3 expects from use of the cold spray repair applications based on both industry and in-house research: Dimensional and Structural restoration capability Depot (fixed) and Field (portable) level repair capability Corrosion resistance improvements Wear resistance improvements Environmentally-friendly process Economical spray process with mixed carrier gases

Keywords:
Dimensional and Structural Restoration, Coatings, repair, cold spray