Inovati (Santa Barbara, CA, USA) has successfully developed a low-temperature metal deposition technique, Kinetic Metallization (KM). KM is capable of depositing fully dense, adherent coatings of a variety of metals on standard metal surfaces without costly surface preparation. Coatings of pure copper, stainless steel, nickel, chromium, aluminium, cobalt, niobium, and other metals, as well as alloys based on these metals are possible on such surfaces as steel, aluminum, titanium, copper, brass, etc. Additionally, braze powders (e.g., silver, copper, aluminum or nickel-based) can be sprayed out onto parts to be joined and coatings have also been demonstrated on ceramic substrates. The feedstock material for KM is powder. The cost of KM is comparable to competitive processes. Since the powders are deposited at well below their respective melting points, the coatings exhibit very fine grain size and one can avoid heat distortion of the workpiece being coated and interdiffusion of multi-layer coatings. Spray forming of such metals as pure aluminium and Al-SiC composite has also been successfully carried out with fine microstructure in the final material.
