Ann: Joint $2.6M Research Project to Develop TKF Standards, page-20

Hi all,

There's been mixed reactions to this announcement - but I assure you it's a brilliant step in the right direction.

Let me tell you why:

Highly regulated industry such as aviation, oil and gas, most maritime and defence in general will not touch parts that have not been certified. And being "certified" changes depending on the industry and varies in its nature. For example some parts require batch destructive testing, some parts require fatigue testing, some parts require x-ray qualifiaction, some parts require load testing of some description, and most parts require material certifcation.  All of these test requirements are based on decades of research and testing right through from qualifying the feed stock being mined and transported to the manufacturing facilities, to quality control of the processes of manufacturing (cast, powder metallurgy, forged) and to the finishing processes (coatings, hardening, heat treatment etc). 

All of this to answer two questions:

Is the part suitable for the application (strength, fatigue, corrosion properties etc)?

Will the next 1000 parts be the same? (Think quality control and qaulity assurance).

A big chunk of work needs to be done to standardise the industry requirements for cold spray parts. This is so industry has confidence in the part, the clients have confidence and everyone had done due diligence. Industry and their regulators are risk averse (and rightly so) when taking on new engineering products.

There are currently NO cold spray standards for parts. Think about that for a second. This area is so new. Several organisations are working  furiously on it but it takes time and resources and now Titomic has secured a sizable grant to move it along.

For those unsure about the 470K being spent by Titomic, think about it this way: They have just mulitplied your investment 5 times.  Instead of having 470k to spend on creating standards they have 2.6 million. And creating standards is not cheap.....a lot if subject matter experts need to be engaged, organisation and standards bodies need to be involved and lots of testing need to be done. 2.6 million is a VERY healthy amount of money to do this. These grants are competitive to get - so fantastic that TTT have been able to do it.

Also - the way these grants work, mean that it is expected that the industry partner puts in some money. At the end of the day TTT will benefit hugely from this, and IMRC want to make sure they remain invested in this and spend the funds wisely.

I hope that clears up a few things for everyone. So take-away message that people have been saying "a step in the right direction". I would add that it is a GIANT step. Without this step you have a cool product, that's it.

I should also mention that I am actively involved in the area of additive manufacturing and more specifically, cold spray. No, I don't work for TTT.