Adjusting Residual Stresses During Cold Spray Deposition of IN718

The residual stress state in cold spray coatings, which is typically compressive in nature, can be crucial for the coating integrity at high levels or for thick coatings. As an alternative, the analysis using the curvature measurement was applied in this study. The stress measurement during cold spray deposition was made by using an in situ coating property sensor (ICP sensor), which is relatively widely used in thermal spray and enables a fast comparison of several process parameters. The results were then compared to post-deposition curvature measurements. It could be revealed that the usage of a very slow robot traverse speed can lead to tensile residual stresses in cold-sprayed coatings. This finding was explained by the high local temperature during deposition and the formation of tensile stresses during cooling of the deposited material to the average substrate temperature. The increase in the powder feed rate can increase this effect. Preheating did not influence the final stress state. An analytical model is presented which can at least semi-quantitatively explain the observed findings. As an outcome of the research work, it is now possible to adjust the residual stress state in cold spray coatings from tensile to compressive and vice versa with the opportunity of a zero stress state.