Cold spray of mixed metal powders on carbon fibre reinforced polymers

Metallization of polymers and polymer composites has attracted interest recently. Cold spray is an emerging coating method, but direct cold spray of metals on carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is difficult. Previous results show that tin coatings can be cold sprayed on CFRP, but the deposition efficiency is relatively low. In this work, copper and zinc powders were mixed with tin to investigate the effect of mixing on deposition efficiency of the coating. The mixed metal powders were cold sprayed on CFRP with a low-pressure system at various conditions. Results show that the addition of copper and zinc led to much higher deposition efficiencies compared to the pure tin coating. Based on the results, the deposition mechanism of the mixed metal powders on CFRP is discussed, the effect of mixing powders on deposition efficiency is analyzed and several mechanisms are proposed accordingly.