Repair of landing gear parts by Cold Spray additive manufacturing

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Aircraft parts such as brackets, which are simple secondary structures, and landing gears, which are primary structures, are often damaged during regular operations or during machining processes when the parts are manufactured. However, at present, these aircraft parts cannot be easily or economically repaired because of a lack of certified technologies for the repair of aerospace products and parts. We propose to carry out this research using Cold Gas Dynamic Spraying (CGDS) as an additive manufacturing process to restore and repair damaged landing gear parts. CGDS produces metallic layers/coatings by accelerating metal powders onto the part to be repaired/coated using high velocity gas at supersonic speeds. Upon impact with the part, metallic particles plastically deform and produce a well-bonded solid layer; this has proven to mechanically and/or metallurgically bond a coating with the underlying surfaces. Layers/coatings made of various metals can be produced using this process without damaging the parts to be coated. Minimal heat is produced during the process; thus, the temperature of the part remains well below its melting point. Although CGDS has been used successfully to produce a wide variety of coatings for a diversity of substrate types worldwide for more than a decade, mainly by academic institutions, it has only been used on limited occasions for repair/restoration of aerospace parts, and results are not well documented in the literature. Furthermore, CGDS has never been used to repair parts using the materials proposed herein. As such, the approach proposed in the current Engage Grant application is novel. We propose new ways in which to use the proposed materials to develop certified CGDS technology for the aerospace industry in response to a specific request by HDI.