Cold Spray Laboratory

Cold Spray is a solid-state additive manufacturing method that deposits powder feedstock onto a substrate. The process is typically done with metal but can also be used with certain polymers and ceramics. Cold spray applications include coatings, repairs, and 3-D printing components Some of the specialized equipment housed in the Cold Spray Lab include; the VRC Gen III Max, the WA-DED or Wire Arc Direct Energy Deposition and the WarpSPEE3D printer. Both the WarpSPEE3D and GenIII are both cold spray systems with the difference being that the GenIII is more geared towards research and the WarpSpee3d is more for printing parts. Each of these instruments is unique in its own right but what makes the ICBM Cold Spray Lab truly unique is that we have all three onsite, opening the door for hybrid manufacturing research such as printing a part on WA-DED and then doing a cold spray coating on top.