Establishing a Cold Spray Particle Deposition Window on Polymer Substrate

A set of processing conditions for cold spray deposition of an embedded particle layer on a polymer substrate has been established using a dynamic impact model and verified experimentally. This research utilizes a three-network polymer model based on high strain-rate impact tests to capture the nonlinear and time-dependent response of polymer deformation during the cold spray impact with both rigid and deformable particles. The particle's material properties, particle velocity, and particle size were systematically studied to obtain the polymer deformation's various responses from finite element analysis. Particle impact velocity was experimentally measured with a double disk rotary system. The numerical results were mapped into diagrams and validated with the experimental results of cold spraying Cu and Al2O3 powders. This research contributes to quantifying the deposition window, which embeds but still exposes metallic/ceramic powders on a polymer substrate.