NUWC Division, Keyport receives NAVSEA certification for cold spray facility
Cold spray is a solid-state process that uses pressurized and heated gas to propel metal powder at high velocity to build up worn or damaged metal surfaces without melting the base material, as in traditional welding. By eliminating the need to melt components, the process preserves their structural integrity, eliminates warping and prevents “heat-affected zone damage”—or a weakening of the surrounding area caused by extreme heat—that commonly occurs with welding.
The qualification validates the command's ability to reliably and consistently perform non-structural cold spray repairs using approved materials widely used throughout the Navy. This achievement represents a shift away from traditional, less durable repair solutions toward permanent, on-demand methods of restoring metal shipboard components.
“Cold spray provides a relatively cost-effective means to repair areas where there might be erosion over time or just damage to metal components,” said Andy Bloom, head of NUWC Division, Keyport’s Mechanical Engineering Applied Technology Branch. “Instead of going through some of the more traditional time-intensive repair methods or even potentially having to scrap hardware, Keyport has been working on this technology to build up the expertise so we can proactively assist shipyards.”
The certification follows a site visit in April by personnel from Naval Surface Warfare Center Division, Carderock on behalf of NAVSEA, during which NUWC Division, Keyport’s facility and quality assurance program received a perfect rating of satisfactory with no comments.
Jason Scheffer, quality manager for NUWC Division, Keyport’s Rapid Prototyping and Fabrication Technology Division, praised the team collaboration that led to the flawless audit.
“The cold spray program is relatively new, and the team worked a lot with the NAVSEA representative to make sure that they understood the requirements and intent of the program,” Scheffer said.
Andrew Podgorski, a chemical engineer at NUWC Division, Keyport who was closely involved in the qualification process, emphasized that this capability allows the Navy to save significant time and money by repairing rather than replacing components.
“[These process improvements] would be rather substantial in freeing resources and man-hours to either work other valves in the queue or tackle other priorities,” said Podgorski.
Beyond performing repairs on site, NUWC Division, Keyport is developing and validating Qualified Spray Procedures (or standardized instructions on spray parameters and the automated robotic movements needed to repair specific parts) for naval shipyards and repair facilities, including Trident Refit Facility, Bangor and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility.
To establish these procedures, engineers at NUWC Division, Keyport conducted extensive testing funded by the Submarine Industrial Base. The testing was focused on addressing a major cause of delays in submarine maintenance: three-way ball valves.
Currently, naval shipyards use epoxy to patch eroded or corroded metal on these valves; but the epoxy may crack or fail to stick during curing, forcing maintenance workers to bake off the failed repair in an oven and restart the repair from scratch. According to engineering estimates developed by Podgorski and his team using historical shipyard maintenance data, repairing them with cold spray eliminates this repeated rework, potentially reducing repair turnaround times by 9 to 15 percent and the number of repair attempts by up to 42 percent.
NUWC Division, Keyport plans to relocate its cold spray equipment to a larger space to accommodate larger components, such as submarine mast and radar shafts. The command is also working with the SIB to acquire a real-time nitrogen generation system to support 24-hour spray operations.
Additionally, NUWC Division, Keyport is partnering with Naval Nuclear Laboratory to develop structural cold spray repairs for pressurized piping systems, acapability that could allow Sailors to repair pipes without having to isolate, drain and cut out sections of pipe.
Scheffer emphasized that NUWC Division, Keyport’s cold spray facility is ready to support the Navy's repair organizations immediately: “We are now a NAVSEA-certified cold spray facility, and we are open for business,” he said.
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Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division, Keyport is headquartered in the state of Washington on the Puget Sound, about 10 miles west of Seattle. To provide ready support to Fleet operational forces at all major Navy homeports in the Pacific, NUWC Division, Keyport maintains detachments in San Diego, California and Honolulu, Hawaii, and remote operating sites in Guam; Japan; Hawthorne, Nevada; and Portsmouth, Virginia. At NUWC Division, Keyport, our diverse and highly skilled team of engineers, scientists, technicians, administrative professionals and industrial craftsmen work tirelessly to develop, maintain and sustain undersea warfare superiority for the United States.
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