An Attempt to Understand Stainless 316 Powders for Cold-Spray Deposition

Cold gas dynamic spray (CS) is a unique technique for depositing material using high-strain-rate solid-state deformation. A major challenge for this technique is its dependence on the powder’s properties, and another is the lack of standards for assessing them between lots and manufacturers. The motivation of this research was to understand the variability in powder atomization techniques for stainless steel powders and their subsequent properties for their corresponding impacts on CS. A drastic difference (~30%) was observed in the deposition efficiencies (DEs) of unaltered, spherical and similar sized stainless steel (316) powders produced using centrifugal (C.A) and traditional gas atomization (G.A) techniques. The study highlights more the differences on a precursor level. Using recent advancements in large scale statistical measurements, such as laser diffraction shape analysis and µCT scanning; and traditional methods, such as EBSD and nanoindentation, an attempt was made to understand the powder’s properties. Insights on powder size and shape were documented. Significant differences were observed between C.A and G.A powders in terms of grain size, fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) and nanohardness. The outcomes of this study should be helpful for understanding the commercialization of the cold-spray process for bulk manufacturing of powder precursors.