Researchers at Auburn University’s National Center for Additive Manufacturing Excellence (NCAME) have launched a study with metal powder producer 6K Additive to evaluate how cold spray feedstock materials perform under demanding conditions, targeting the lack of mechanical performance data that has kept the technology from wider adoption in repair applications.
“This project is about understanding how cold spray materials behave when they’re used for repair and sustainment operations in demanding environments,” said Mikyle Paul, NCAME research engineer who leads this project. “We’re evaluating the mechanical performance and strength of a range of feedstock materials so we can generate data that supports future repair strategies for critical components across defense and industrial sectors.”
Experimental work will be conducted using the center’s VRC Gen IV Cold Spray System, with findings intended to advance the understanding of how cold spray materials perform under the demands of field repair, where structural reliability is not optional.
“By understanding the strengths and limitations of these materials, we can help accelerate their adoption for real-world repair applications where downtime, cost, and operational readiness are major considerations,” said Scot Carpenter, NCAME laboratories manager.
Filling the Data Gap Cold Spray Still Faces
Cold spray’s appeal for defense and industrial repair has been clear for years, it deposits material without melting, preserves substrate integrity, and can be deployed in field conditions. The barrier has consistently been data, not capability. Without standardized mechanical performance benchmarks for specific feedstock materials under specific conditions, procurement and maintenance engineers cannot qualify the process for critical component repair with confidence. NCAME’s project is directly aimed at that bottleneck, generating the evidence base that adoption requires.
The broader cold spray research community has been moving in the same direction. A NASA-funded collaboration between the University of Utah, Penn State, and Colorado-based Elementum 3D, is working to characterize cold spray deposition parameters and particle-level bonding behavior for GRX-810, mapping how particle chemistry, microstructure, surface condition, and impact velocity each affect structural outcomes. The explicit goal is to generate the process data needed to unlock reliable manufacturing and repair pathways for the material.
Similarly, Florida International University‘s Cold Spray and Rapid Deposition Laboratory acquired WarpSPEE3D metal 3D printer from SPEE3D to run a parallel application research focused on expanding cold spray to complex geometries across aerospace and energy, again, building the evidence base rather than the hardware.
The NCAME and 6K Additive study adds a dimension those efforts have not fully addressed: systematic feedstock characterization across a range of materials, producing transferable performance data rather than system-specific demonstrations. Whether that data becomes the reference point that finally closes the qualification gap will depend on how broadly it is adopted by the defense and industrial sectors the project is designed to serve.
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Featured image shows NCAME Research Engineer Mikyle Paul, right, and Hunter Ryan with the center’s VRC Gen IV Cold Spray System. Photo via Auburn University.
