EVALUATING CHARACTERISTICS OF ALUMINUM COLD SPRAY AS A FIELD REPAIR FOR MAGNESIUM TRANSMISSION

HOUSINGS
Sid P. Raje
sraje@textron.com
Textron LDP:E (Leadership Development Program: Engineering)
Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. Fort Worth, TX, USA
Abstract
This paper investigates characteristics of aluminum cold spray on a ZE41A magnesium substrate. A corrosion study was
conducted which showed the galvanic tendency of cold spray on a magnesium substrate. This study was also used to deter-
mine the optimal coating for a cold spray repair. Chrome-manganese performed the best of the coatings tested. Tensile testing
of cold spray on a magnesium substrate was conducted and the results were compared to baseline magnesium data. Fatigue
testing was also conducted to produce an S-N curve, which showed that cold spray on magnesium substrate was comparable
to baseline magnesium. Based on the test results described in this paper, design recommendations are made, and a path to
production is outlined.
1
1. Introduction
1

Cold spray is a coating deposition process used in many ap-
plications in the defense, aerospace, as well as the commer-
cial industry. It uses a carrier gas stream moving at a super-
sonic velocity in order to deposit a given material onto a
substrate. The particles impact the substrate at a high veloci-
ty, resulting in uniform bonding. This process occurs at a
temperature that is below the melting point of the coating
material, hence the name cold spray. This allows for coating
of a broad range of substrate materials such as composites as
well as thin walls (Ref. 4). The deposited coating has a high
density and low porosity properties. Ductile metallic pow-
ders, such as aluminum, zinc, titanium, nickel, carbide-
cobalt, and tungsten-copper are all examples of coating ma-
terials (Ref. 1). The particle sizes for these powders range
from 1 to 50 m. With the use of proper spray parameters,
near theoretical densities with virtually no inclusions are
attainable with the cold spray process. The properties and
microstructure of the initial powder particles are retained.
This allows for manufacture of parts of various sizes and
shapes as well as the ability of the spray to be machine fin-
ished (Ref. 2). Additionally, because of the localized deposi-
tion properties, the need for masking is eliminated (Ref. 4).

The use of magnesium to construct transmission housings
during the Vietnam era was common in an effort to reduce
weight and increase aircraft performance. Magnesium is
35% lighter than aluminum and offers increased stiffness
and damping characteristics (Ref 3). The biggest disad-
vantage to using magnesium in such an application is its

1
Presented at the American Helicopter Society 69th Annual
Forum, Phoenix, Arizona, May 2123, 2013. Copy-
right 2013 by the American Helicopter Society Interna-
tional, Inc. All rights reserved.
susceptibility to corrosion and pitting. Aluminum cold spray
has been proposed as a method to repair corrosion/pitting
damage on rotorcraft transmission housings made out of
magnesium.

The application of cold spray described in this paper was
conducted at Army Research Laboratories using a 6061
aluminum powder and a helium carrier gas.
2. Corrosion Testing
A corrosion study was conducted in order to evaluate gal-
vanic corrosion characteristics of 6061 aluminum cold spray
on a ZE41A magnesium substrate. A groove was machined
out of each magnesium test coupon and a base coating of
high purity aluminum was cold sprayed on half of the cou-
pons. Then, in order to simulate a gearbox, a protective coat-
ing of either brush Tagnite or chrome-manganese was ap-
plied. A test matrix of the test coupons and corresponding
coatings can be seen in Table 2.1. These test coupons were
subject to atmospheric testing in a salt spray and humidity
cycle seen in Fig. 2.1.

Figures 2.2 and 2.3 show the test coupons before and after
the atmospheric cycle, which was successful in building the
desired amount of corrosion on the test coupons. Figures 2.4,
and 2.5 show a typical cross section of the test coupons after
the atmospheric cycle. In all the cases, the magnesium sub-
strate was observed to show more pitting due to corrosion
than the aluminum cold spray, as expected. However,
chrome-manganese acted as a better corrosion protecting
coating on the magnesium substrate than the brush Tagnite.
Chrome-manganese was also observed to be a better corro-
sion protecting coating at the magnesium/aluminum inter-
face than brush Tagnite.

The chrome-manganese coating did not adhere to the alumi-
num cold spray during application. In order to keep the cou-
pons consistent, the Tagnite coating was removed from the
aluminum cold spray. During this process step, the T
coating may have been unintentionally re
aluminum/magnesium interface. Consequen
a source of error in the results observed at the alum
num/magnesium interface.

Test coupons where the magnesium substrate was coated in
high purity aluminum showed similar corrosion patterns
with coupons where the substrate was not coated.
it was concluded that base coating the substrate with high
purity aluminum does not have a significant impact on the
corrosion properties.
Table 2.1
Coupon Number
1
2
3
4
5
6


pons consistent, the Tagnite coating was removed from the
aluminum cold spray. During this process step, the Tagnite
emoved from the
quently, this may be
a source of error in the results observed at the alumi-
Test coupons where the magnesium substrate was coated in
high purity aluminum showed similar corrosion patterns
with coupons where the substrate was not coated. Therefore,
it was concluded that base coating the substrate with high
purity aluminum does not have a significant impact on the
Further corrosion studies must be conducted in order to d
termine the best coating to prevent atmospheric and galvanic
corrosion. The primary requirement for this coating must be
that it needs to adhere to both magnesium and aluminum so
that experimental error due to adhesion, masking, or removal
of coating is reduced. This requirement will also ensure that
galvanic corrosion will not occur at the magnesium
aluminum interface due to exposure to the atmosphere.

Table 2.1 Test Coupon Matrix
Base Coating Protective Coating
None Brush Tagnite
None Chrome Manganese
None Brush Tagnite
None Chrome Manganese
HP Aluminum Brush Tagnite
HP Aluminum Chrome Manganese
HP Aluminum Brush Tagnite
HP Aluminum Chrome Manganese
HP Aluminum Brush Tagnite
HP Aluminum Chrome Manganese
None Brush Tagnite
None Chrome Manganese

Figure 2.1 Humidity Cycle
Further corrosion studies must be conducted in order to de-
coating to prevent atmospheric and galvanic
corrosion. The primary requirement for this coating must be
that it needs to adhere to both magnesium and aluminum so
that experimental error due to adhesion, masking, or removal
irement will also ensure that
galvanic corrosion will not occur at the magnesium-
aluminum interface due to exposure to the atmosphere.





Figure 2.2 Corrosion Coupons before Atmospheric Testing

Figure 2.3 Corrosion Coupons after Atmospheric Testing


Figure 2.4 Typical Cross Section (HP Aluminum Base Coating) (Coupon #4)
Figure 2.5 Typical Cross Section (No Base Coating) (Coupon # 1)
Typical Cross Section (HP Aluminum Base Coating) (Coupon #4)
Typical Cross Section (No Base Coating) (Coupon # 1)


Typical Cross Section (HP Aluminum Base Coating) (Coupon #4)


Typical Cross Section (No Base Coating) (Coupon # 1)
3. Tensile Testing
Tensile testing was conducted per ASTM-E-8. The test spec-
imen used for tensile testing can be seen in Fig. 3.1. A
groove was machined out of the specimen and cold sprayed.
The specimen was then machined down to its final dimen-
sions, Fig. 3.2. The maximum ratio of cold spray to magne-
sium was 1:1 at the center cross section of the test specimen.
Non-cold sprayed tensile specimens were also machined
using ZE41A magnesium in order to collect baseline data.
A summary of the results of tensile testing can be seen in
Table 3.1. The results show the mean, min, and max yield
stresses in the cold sprayed specimens were 6%, 5%, and
11% higher respectively than the baseline magnesium data.
This exhibits the integrity of the bond strength between cold
spray and magnesium. However, the mean, min, and max
ultimate stresses in the cold sprayed specimens were 7.5%,
32%, and 2% lower respectively than those in the baseline
magnesium specimens. The difference between mean yield

Figure 3.2 Post-Cold Spray Tensile Specimen

Figure 3.1 Pre-cold spray Tensile Specimen
Table 3.1 Summary of Results
Cold Spray Samples (T16-T30) Yield Stress @ 0.02% (KSI) Ultimate Stress (KSI) TE Manual %
Mean 20.9 29.2 2.6
Standard Deviation 0.7 3.1 2.0
Min 20.0 20.1 0.6
Max 22.7 32.0 8.8
Median 20.9 29.8 2.4

Magnesium ZE-41A Baseline
(T1-T12)
Yield Stress @ 0.02% (KSI) Ultimate Stress (KSI) TE Manual %
Mean 19.7 31.6 4.3
Standard Deviation 0.4 0.9 0.8
Min 19.0 29.6 3.2
Max 20.4 32.7 5.8
Median 19.75 31.5 4.07

and ultimate failure points was 8.3 ksi in the cold sprayed
specimens and 11.9 ksi in the baseline magnesium speci-
mens. A contributing factor to this may be the inherent non-
uniformity in materials in the cold sprayed specimens. Fail-
ure modes observed in the cold sprayed specimens consisted
of a variation between a straight fracture plane as well as a
concave/convex fracture plane. This is shown in Fig. 3.3.
The concave/convex fracture plane is observed when the
failure occurs at the bond line. Some failures were observed
at the magnesium substrate. Bond integrity of cold spray is
further reinforced by these results because the cold spray-
magnesium bond strength was comparable to the magnesi-
um-magnesium bond strength. The tensile test results for all
the specimens are included in Appendix A.
Future studies involving tensile testing at elevated tempera-
tures are recommended. The effect of temperature on tensile
strength are required in order to prevent the cracking in the
transmission case in when using cold spray repairs on a
magnesium gearbox, especially during a loss of lubrication
event (temperatures up to 400F) because the propagation of
cracks in the transmission housing may result in separation
of gear meshes.
4. Fatigue Testing
Fatigue testing was performed on cold sprayed ZE41A mag-
nesium coupons per ASTM E-466. The pre cold spray and
post cold spray test specimen geometry is shown in Fig. 4.1
and Fig. 4.2 respectively. Testing was conducted at a mean
stress of 0 ksi and 5 ksi. For both mean stresses, testing was
conducted at room temperature (75F) and elevated tempera-
ture (250F). The results of fatigue testing were used to cre-
ate an S-N curve, shown in Fig. 4.3.

As expected, the specimens that were tested under a 5 ksi
mean stress had a lower fatigue life than those tested at 0 ksi.
Similarly, specimens tested at elevated temperatures had a
lower fatigue life than those tested at room temperature. The
SN curve generated from this test data was compared to leg-
acy ZE41A magnesium data. Cold sprayed coupons were
observed to have a similar fatigue life trend to pure magne-
sium coupons. However, the limited set of legacy data points
from baseline magnesium showed that magnesium was able
to withstand higher fatigue stresses than the tested cold spray
specimens. Additional testing and data points are required
for ZE41A magnesium to reinforce this trend. The inherent
non-homogeneity in the material of the cold spray specimen
may be a contributing factor to the difference observed be-
tween baseline magnesium data and cold spray data. The
failure modes that were observed consisted of: fracture at the
shank area outside of the cold spray section (pure magnesi-
um inside the plane of failure, Fig. 4.4), fracture at the shank
area inside the cold spray section (Fig. 4.5), and fracture at
the grip (area where fatigue testing apparatus was clamped
to specimen). The full test results are shown in Appendix B.
Of the specimens tested, 1 specimen (F-8) failed in the cold
sprayed area, shown in Fig. 4.4.

Figure 3.3 Failure Modes of Tensile Specimen

Figure 4.1 Pre Cold Spray Fatigue Specimen (Shank)

Figure 4.2 Post Cold Spray Fatigue Specimen (Shank)

Figure 4.3 S-N Curve, Cold Spray

Figure 4.5 Fatigue fracture in shank (cold sprayed ar-
ea) (Specimen F-8)

Figure 4.4 Fatigue fracture in shank (magnesium)
(Specimen F-15)

Figure 4.6 Disbond fracture plane
Figure 4.5 Failure Origin (Specimen F
Figure 4.7

Specimen F-8 was tested at a mean stress of 0 ksi at room
temperature (75 F). Figure 4.5 shows the origin of the fra
ture. The fracture originated at a subsurface location in the
magnesium substrate. The aluminum cold spray sho
more favorable characteristics during testing than the ZE41A
magnesium. The location of the fracture origin may be due
to the geometry of the fatigue specimen. A bond line failure
(concave/convex fracture plane) was only observed in f
tigue specimen F-8 where the failure occurred within the
cold sprayed area, Fig. 4.6.

A next logical step in evaluating fatigue characteristics is to
conduct flexure fatigue testing. The intent of this testing is to
simulate an asymmetric transmission housing repair. The
shank specimen is axially symmetric and therefore the su
strate/cold spray interface is loaded uniformly. An asymme
ric repair area in the flexure specimen will induce non
uniform stresses on the substrate/cold spray interface and
provide fatigue life predictions for a configuration that is
more representative of a field repair. The post cold spray
flexure fatigue test specimen can be seen in
5. Path to Production
By using probability, material properties, and geometry, the
fatigue life of a part can be determined analytically (Ref. 5).
The fatigue life of the shank specimen was determined an
lytically and plotted on an S-N curve. In order to validate
this data, the analytical and actual S
for comparison. For further validation,
flexure fatigue testing, analytical and actual fatigue S
curves will be overlaid for comparison.

Disbond fracture plane

Failure Origin (Specimen F-8)
Post Cold Spray Fatigue Specimen (Flexure)
8 was tested at a mean stress of 0 ksi at room
temperature (75 F). Figure 4.5 shows the origin of the frac-
ture. The fracture originated at a subsurface location in the
magnesium substrate. The aluminum cold spray showed
more favorable characteristics during testing than the ZE41A
magnesium. The location of the fracture origin may be due
to the geometry of the fatigue specimen. A bond line failure
(concave/convex fracture plane) was only observed in fa-
8 where the failure occurred within the
A next logical step in evaluating fatigue characteristics is to
conduct flexure fatigue testing. The intent of this testing is to
simulate an asymmetric transmission housing repair. The
shank specimen is axially symmetric and therefore the sub-
strate/cold spray interface is loaded uniformly. An asymmet-
ric repair area in the flexure specimen will induce non-
uniform stresses on the substrate/cold spray interface and
ictions for a configuration that is
more representative of a field repair. The post cold spray
flexure fatigue test specimen can be seen in Fig. 4.7.
By using probability, material properties, and geometry, the
be determined analytically (Ref. 5).
The fatigue life of the shank specimen was determined ana-
N curve. In order to validate
this data, the analytical and actual S-N curves were overlaid
for comparison. For further validation, upon completion of
flexure fatigue testing, analytical and actual fatigue S-N
curves will be overlaid for comparison.

A cold spray repair process, if relied on for structural integri-
ty and not just dimensional restoration, requires a successful
bench test before it can be incorporated into the field. With
the uniqueness of each potential cold spray application, and
the high cost of bench testing, the analytical fatigue life of a
cold sprayed magnesium gearbox is highly desirable in order
to assess different failure modes and durability. Contingent
on validation of analytical results based on bench test data
and qualification, feasibility of cold spray as a magnesium
repair will be determined.
In parallel to fatigue testing, corrosion studies will be run in
order to determine the optimal corrosion preventing coating
for aluminum cold spray on a magnesium substrate.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Vertical Lift Consortium,
formerly the Center for Rotorcraft Innovation and the Na-
tional Rotorcraft Technology Center (NRTC), U.S. Army
Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineer-
ing Center (AMRDEC) under Technology Investment
Agreement W911W6-06-2-0002, entitled National Ro-
torcraft Technology Center Research Program. The author
would like to acknowledge that this research and develop-
ment was accomplished with the support and guidance of the
NRTC and VLC. The views and conclusions contained in
this document are those of the authors and should not be
interpreted as representing the official policies, either ex-
pressed or implied, of the AMRDEC or the U.S. Govern-
ment. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and
distribute re-prints for Government purposes notwithstand-
ing any copyright notation thereon.

The author would like to thank Eric Sinusas, Walt Riley,
Ron Gill, Bob Lee, Cory Posvic, and the staff at Bell Heli-
copters Metallic Materials Laboratory, and Field Investiga-
tions Laboratory for their continued support and input. Grati-
tude is also extended to Victor Champagne (ARL), Brian
Gabriel (ARL), and VEXTEC Corporation for supporting
this effort.

References
1. Wilmot, Damien, Howe, Christopher D., Todorovic,
Ranko, Hoiland, Benjamin, Low Pressure Cold Spray Con-
ductive Coating A Case Study, AMMTIAC Quarterly
Vol. 5 No. 1.
2. Karthikeyan, J. Cold Spray Technology: International
Status and USA Efforts, ASB Industries, 2004
3. Champagne, Victor, The Repair of Magnesium Ro-
torcraft Components by Cold Spray, Society for Machinery
Failure Prevention Technology, 2007.
4. Gabriel, Brian M., Champagne, Victor K., Leyman Phil-
lip F., Helfritch, Dennis J., Cold Spray for Repair of Mag-
nesium Components, ARL, July 2011.
5. VEXTEC, Virtual Twin Explained, <
http://www.vextec.com/our-products/virtual-twin-
explained>, 2011


Appendix A Tensile Test Results


Appendix B Fatigue Test Results



Appendix B Fatigue Test Results contd