Cold spraying (or gas dynamic cold spraying) was introduced to the market in the 1990s. The method was originally developed in the Soviet Union – while experimenting with the erosion of the target, which was exposed to a two-phase high-velocity flow of fine powder in a wind tunnel, scientists observed accidental rapid formation of coatings.
In cold spraying, particles are accelerated to very high speeds by the carrier gas forced through a converging–diverging de Laval type nozzle. Upon impact, solid particles with sufficient kinetic energy deform plastically and bond mechanically to the substrate to form a coating. The critical velocity needed to form bonding depends on the material's properties, powder size and temperature. Metals, polymers, ceramics, composite materials and nanocrystalline powders can be deposited using cold spraying.
Soft metals such as Cu and Al are best suited for cold spraying, but coating of other materials (W, Ta, Ti, MCrAlY, WC–Co, etc.) by cold spraying has been reported.
The deposition efficiency is typically low for alloy powders, and the window of process parameters and suitable powder sizes is narrow. To accelerate powders to higher velocity, finer powders (<20 micrometers) are used. It is possible to accelerate powder particles to much higher velocity using a processing gas having high speed of sound (helium instead of nitrogen).
However, helium is costly and its flow rate, and thus consumption, is higher. To improve acceleration capability, nitrogen gas is heated up to about 900 °C. As a result, deposition efficiency and tensile strength of deposits increase.