May 13, 2008

5:30 Social Hour

6:30 – 7:30 Dinner

7:30 – Speaker : Mark Smith

Cold Spray – A Hot New Materials Process Technology

Dr. Mark F. Smith, FASM Trustee (2006-2009)

What interesting new design, research, and fabrication opportunities might you imagine if you could rapidly deposit thin or thick (cm+) layers of a wide range of metals and some composites onto a broad range of substrates at or near room temperature, in the solid state, and in an ambient air atmosphere? Cold Spray is an emerging technology that offers this intriguing opportunity.

In this process, fine metal powders are accelerated to very high velocities in a supersonic jet of compressed gas. When these high-velocity particles impact a workpiece surface, they plastically deform at very high rates, creating a shear instability that forms a bond with underlying material by a process very similar to explosive welding, but on a micro-scale. This presentation provides an overview of Cold Spray technology, some of the unique properties of cold sprayed materials, and potential advantages/limitations for commercial applications.

Meeting Location!

Meetings for the 2009-2010 year will be held at Brady’s Landing.

Bio: Dr. Mark Smith, FASM

Dr. Mark Smith is deputy director of Sandia National Laboratories Advanced Manufacturing Science and Technology Center, Albuquerque, N.M. This 300-person center annually conducts nearly $60 million of R&D to support various national security programs. He joined Sandia in 1981. Since 1993, Dr. Smith has also served as an adjunct professor in the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering at New Mexico Tech University. Before moving into technical management at Sandia in 1999, Dr. Smith was best known for
his pioneering work in thermal spray technology. He was recently inducted into the Thermal Spray Hall of Fame, founded by the ASM Thermal Spray Society (TSS). Dr. Smith received his graduate and undergraduate degrees at Iowa State University. His father, Prof. John F. (Jack) Smith, is a retired professor of metallurgy and former department chair at Iowa State, who remains active with ASM as editor of Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion. Jack and Mark are among the few living pairs of father-son Fellows of ASM. Mark Smith has a 30+ year record of service to ASM. He was one of a small group of thermal sprayers who approached ASM in the mid 1980s to form the Thermal Spray Technical Division (TSD), which later became the ASM Thermal Spray Society during his term as TSD Chairman. He was subsequently elected to an unprecedented three terms (nine years) on the TSS Board, and helped to start the National Thermal Spray Conference, which later became the International Thermal Spray Conference (ITSC). Dr. Smith was also the founding chairman of the Editorial Review Committee for the TSS Journal of Thermal Spray Technology.