Melting Can Hinder Impact-Induced Adhesion

Melting has long been used to join metallic materials, from welding to selective laser melting in additive manufacturing. In the same school of thought, localized melting has been generally perceived as an advantage, if not the main mechanism, for the adhesion of metallic microparticles to substrates during a supersonic impact. Here, we conduct the first in situ supersonic impact observations of individual metallic microparticles aimed at the explicit study of melting effects. Counterintuitively, we find that under at least some conditions melting is disadvantageous and hinders impact-induced adhesion. In the parameter space explored, i.e., similar to 10 mu m particle size and similar to 1 km/s particle velocity, we argue that the solidification time is much longer than the residence time of the particle on the substrate, so that resolidification cannot be a significant factor in adhesion.