Cold spray of nickel-base alloys

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9598774-B2
Application number	US-201113328290-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2011
Priority date	Dec 16, 2011
Publication date	Mar 21, 2017
Grant date	Mar 21, 2017

Abstract

Briefly, in one embodiment, a method is disclosed. The method includes introducing a powder feedstock into a cold-spray apparatus, and operating the cold-spray apparatus to deposit the feedstock. The feedstock includes particles including nickel-base alloy having a thermally altered microstructure.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
subjecting atomized powders of a nickel-base alloy to a solution treatment;
quenching the solution treated atomized powders so as to develop powders comprising particles having a thermally altered microstructure, wherein the thermally altered microstructure comprises gamma phase, gamma prime phase, gamma double prime phase, or combinations thereof;
introducing a powder feedstock comprising the particles having the thermally altered microstructure into a cold-spray apparatus; and
operating the cold-spray apparatus to deposit the feedstock.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thermally altered microstructure comprises a matrix, wherein the matrix comprises the gamma-phase.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the thermally altered microstructure further comprises precipitates of the gamma prime phase, the gamma-double prime phase, or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the particles have an average grain size in the range from about 1 μm to 20 μm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the feedstock consists essentially of particles comprising at least about 40% nickel by weight.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising exposing the powder feedstock to a temperature of at least half the melting point of the nickel-base alloy for a duration of at least 5 minutes to produce the thermally altered microstructure.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein operating the cold spray apparatus further comprises introducing a carrier gas comprising nitrogen into the apparatus.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein a carrier gas temperature is in the range from about 20° C. to about 1200° C.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising heat-treating the deposited feedstock to form a deposit comprising a strengthening precipitate phase distributed within a matrix phase.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the matrix comprises nickel-base gamma phase and the strengthening precipitate phase comprises gamma prime, gamma-double prime, or combinations thereof.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the matrix phase has a face-centered cubic crystal structure.

12. The method of claim 9 , wherein the precipitate is less than about 80 volume % of the deposit.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the precipitate is in the range from about 20 volume % to about 55 volume % of the deposit.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein heat-treating the deposited feedstock comprises heating to a temperature in the range from about 300° C. to about 1300° C.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein operating the cold spray device comprises accelerating the feedstock to a velocity in the range from about 500 m/s to about 1100 m/s.

16. An article formed by the method of claim 1 .

17. A method comprising:
subjecting atomized powders of a nickel-base alloy to a solution treatment;
quenching the solution treated atomized powders so as to develop powders comprising particles having a thermally altered microstructure, wherein the thermally altered microstructure comprises gamma phase, gamma prime phase, gamma double prime phase, or combinations thereof;
introducing a powder feedstock into a cold-spray apparatus, wherein the feedstock consists essentially of the particles having the thermally altered microstructure; and
operating the cold-spray apparatus to deposit the feedstock.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising heat-treating the deposited feedstock to form a deposit comprising a strengthening precipitate phase distributed within a matrix phase.

19. The method of claim 17 , wherein quenching the solution treated atomized powders comprises furnace cooling without an aging step.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein quenching the solution treated atomized powders comprises furnace cooling without an aging step.

Assignees

• Ajdelsztajn Leonardo
• Hanlon Timothy
• Gen Electric

Inventors

• Ajdelsztajn Leonardo
• Hanlon Timothy

Classifications

• C23C24/04 Primary

  Impact or kinetic deposition of particles · CPC title