Inovati Employee Directory

Research ServicesUnited States11-50 Employees

Inovati offers a complete line of deposition equipment using the KM Technology. From a fully integrated Coating Development System with 6-axis robot to a hand-held version for field repair, Inovati's KM technology brings you the KM coating advantage.

Kinetic Metallization™ (KM) is a spray process used to deposit a wide range of metals and metal matrix composites onto a substrate. Substrate material may be, ceramic, glass, thermoplastic, or most commonly metal. The deposit may form a coating, which will modify the surface characteristics of the substrate, or, after removal from the substrate, as a freestanding shape. KM feedstock comprises metal powder for metal deposition and metal/ceramic powder mixtures for the deposit of MMCs. Mixtures of dissimilar pure metals or alloys may also be employed. Powder particle size, expressed as average particle size or APS, varies inversely with feedstock density and is in the range of about 20 microns (Al) to 3 microns (WC-Co). Though submicron powders and powders up to 44 microns (-325 mesh) are useful for some applications.

KM is an entirely solid-state process, although a small quantity of heat is applied to the powder, melting never occurs. The heat input is adjusted to a level sufficient to thermally soften the powder and thus enable a large increase in particle ductility. The ductility increase is responsible for the large quantity of deformation that occurs when the particles impact the substrate in the range of 500 to 1,000 m/s.

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