Engineers and scientists from multiple U.S. Army groups have teamed to develop a cold spray technology for repairs on the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s turret gun mount. The team consisted of personnel from Army Research Laboratory, Ground Vehicle Systems Center, Armaments Center, Bradley Product Manager and Red River Army Depot, the service branch said Wednesday.
“This project demonstrated the ability to apply new manufacturing technologies to bring components back into service that would otherwise be scrapped during depot maintenance operations,” said Gehn Ferguson, ARL materials engineer at Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.
The cold spray process uses accelerated micron-sized particles to fill gaps on damaged surfaces. A repair using cold spray would cost only $1,000, compared to the $25,000 cost of a gun mount replacement.
ARL chose Bradley’s turret gun as a cold spray subject due to the laboratory’s experience with similar metals. Four to five more gun mounts will undergo cold spray repair over the next six months. The Army’s Manufacturing Technology Program funded the project.
