Understanding the Cold Spray Deposition Characteristics of Mixed Metal Powders

Mixing metal powders in cold spray is of significant interest not only because it is a straightforward method to produce novel composites, but also it has been observed to generate beneficial effects, e.g. improved deposition efficiency (DE). However, the mechanisms behind DE improvements are still not clear fundamentally. In this paper, two examples of mixing metal powders effects in cold spray are introduced: 1) the first example focuses on the effects of different particle/substrate interactions which occurred during cold spray of SS/Fe mixed powders; 2) the second example presents the DE-improving effect of depositing mixed metal powders onto polymers. Various mechanisms associated with the cold spray deposition characteristics of mixed metal powders are discussed in this paper.