nano Al-Trans^TM IVD Field Replacement

Coating:
Al-Trans^TM mixture: (Aluminum, Transition metal)

Corrosion Resistance (Adhesion):
5000 hrs Salt Spray ASTM B117
Paint: ASTM D2794, 120 ft-lb

Field Repairable:
Portable Unit/ Hand Gun

Thickness:
25 to 100 microns

Fully Dense:
>99%



nano Al-Trans^TM (Al based composite)
High strength steels such as 300M, Aeromet 100, and 4340, typically used for landing gearcomponents, require a corrosion protection coating. Cadmium coatings, which were used in the past,are no longer environmentally acceptable for these applications. Aluminum Ion vapor deposition(IVD) of is currently the accepted method for replacement of cadmium corrosion protective coating.Unfortunately, the IVD process cannot be used for field repair of these or other aluminum basedelectroplating techniques.

Inovati has developed an aluminum based composite, nano Al-Trans™, with exceptional corrosionresistance and a portable hand held spray gun for applying the coating. Kinetic Metallization (KM) isa low-cost spray deposition process that uses a friction compensated sonic nozzle to deposit metallicpowders at very low temperatures. The KM process avoids the oxidation and thermal distortion thatresults from coatings applied with thermal spray. This approach is being refined under the SBIR todevelop an efficient method of field repair of these critical coatings.

nano Al-Trans™ and the KM process avoids the expensive elaborate equipment required for IVD,molten salt bath plating and alumiplate processes. nano Al-Trans™ could easily be used as the primarycoating on critical parts. It has the added benefit of providing a true metallurgical bond to thesubstrate for high adhesion strength and it’s near zero porosity gives it a corrosion resistance that hassurvived more than 5000 hours of salt spray and passed SO2 salt spray per ASTM D1654-92.

KM is a low temperature deposition process that employs a specially designed, two-phase, frictioncompensated sonic nozzle to accelerate micron-size powder particles entrained in a helium carriergas. The sonic nozzle directs the gas/particle suspension at a temperature well below the powder’smelting point onto a substrate. The high-speed collision (700-1000 m/s) of the micron-size powderparticles cause very large strain and strain rates in the particles, which produces depositions havingunique strain-hardened properties resulting from plastic deformation. Metallurgical bonding isachieved exclusively through solid-state reaction - bulk melting does not occur.