NASA STTR Award Funds Cold Spray Research for Novel Alloy
A NASA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award will support research into using cold spray additive manufacturing for the high-entropy alloy GRX-810.
A recent NASA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award is set to advance the application of cold spray additive manufacturing. The funding will be directed towards the development of processes for depositing the novel high-entropy alloy, GRX-810. This alloy is known for its exceptional strength at elevated temperatures.
The research aims to overcome challenges associated with cold spraying GRX-810, which include achieving dense, defect-free deposits. Cold spray is a solid-state additive manufacturing process where metallic particles are propelled at high velocities onto a substrate, causing them to bond and build up a component without melting. This method is particularly attractive for materials that are difficult to process using traditional melting-based additive manufacturing techniques.
GRX-810 has previously shown promise for applications requiring high performance in extreme environments, such as aerospace propulsion systems. The successful development of cold spray processes for this alloy could enable the manufacturing of complex geometries and repair of components with improved material properties and reduced manufacturing time.
This development is significant as it explores a solid-state additive manufacturing technique for a high-performance alloy. Cold spray offers potential advantages for in-situ repair and manufacturing in harsh environments, like space, by avoiding the high temperatures associated with melting-based AM. Successfully applying it to GRX-810 could expand the material palette for aerospace components and potentially enable on-demand part production or repair in demanding applications.
Edited by the news editor with AI from the original report — please refer to the original source.