| Sol No.: |
Navy SBIR FY2010.1 |
| Topic No.: |
N101-086 |
| Topic Title: |
Advanced Rail Materials for Electromagnetic Launchers |
| Proposal No.: |
N101-086-1980 |
| Firm: |
IAP Research, Inc.
2763 Culver Avenue
Dayton, Ohio 45429-3723 |
| Contact: |
David Bauer |
| Phone: |
(937) 296-1806 |
| Web Site: |
www.iap.com |
| Abstract: |
Erosion of copper rail surfaces in EM launchers is a major impediment to their development. Subscale testing at IAP has shown that thin high temperature bore layers such as Tantalum and other refractory metals offer significant protection against erosion. The focus of this Phase I effort is to establish the feasibility of using laser cladding and cold spray technologies to apply high temperature erosion resistant coatings to rail surfaces. These coating technologies are attractive in that they offer the ability to place high hardness low porosity coatings onto low electrical loss copper rail substrates. In addition both processes have the potential to readily scaled to the lengths required for future launcher designs (> 10 m). |
| Benefits: |
The benefits of the proposed Phase I research will be two-fold. The first area will be in the advancement of low erosion coatings for high energy EM launchers. Improved rail life is a critical requirement for the success of the Navy EM launcher program. We anticipate a commercial market from this research in the area of custom powder blending of feed stocks with nano-particles to enhance final properties for coatings applied by the laser cladding and cold spray processes. |