''Splat'' is a lot more than a bug on a windshield for engineers, scientists and business people from all over the world gathering Monday in Fairlawn.
An obscure — among the general public, anyway — but important emerging technology is drawing people to the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn for the third time since 2004.
The group is gathering to discuss a coating technology, called cold spray, that is a way of coating everything from medical devices to pots and pans to military helicopter parts.
Powdered metals and other materials are shot at supersonic speeds at a surface, forming ''splats'' that build up into a coating, said Al Kay, president of the Barberton company that is a leader in cold spray, ASB Industries Inc.
ASB — a 25-employee company formed in 1946 as Akron Sand Blasting and Metalizing — began putting the area on the cold-spray map in the mid-1990s, buying a license to
use the Russian-developed technology. The company later acquired distribution rights for the German-built high-pressure equipment needed for cold spraying.
ASB was instrumental in the cold-spray conference getting off the ground in 2004. It was held in the Akron area in 2007 and now this year.
Vic Champagne, the conference's keynote speaker, said the process ''is like dropping a tomato on the floor,'' but in a very controlled manner.
Champagne, a world-known champion of the technology, is a supervisor and scientist for the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, Md.
''We're working with more than 100 companies, including ASB Industries,'' Champagne said. ''We develop the applications . . . and hand them off to industry so they can put it into production.
''You can do things with cold spray that you cannot do with conventional techniques,'' such as thermal spraying, Champagne said. ''It's not just for coatings, you can make free-standing structures — automotive parts, airplane parts — by building up the cold-spray layers.''
Champagne said cold spray can be a more flexible technique. ''It can make coatings and materials that you cannot make any other way.''
Also, he said, cold spray can be a less costly technology. ''You don't need combustion gases, all sorts of safety equipment, respirators.''
Also talking about cold spray will be officials with ASB Industries.
Much of what is happening with commercial use of the cold-spray technology is kept secret for competitive reasons, said ASB's Kay.
But Champagne will talk about how his lab is working with Sikorsky Aircraft and ASB Industries on cold-spraying components for Sikorsky-made Black Hawk helicopters.
Cold-spraying can be used to repair corroded helicopter parts as opposed to buying new, saving the government millions, Kay said.
ASB, Champagne said, is ''at the forefront of the technology.''
This year, Kay is especially excited to have as a speaker Joe H. Payer, head of the newly launched University of Akron corrosion engineering program.
Supporters of the program, the first of its kind in the country, see it as essential. In 2004, Congress mandated that the Department of Defense establish a corrosion mitigation plan to reduce the costs of repairing and replacing everything from ships to rocket launchers.
Since then, the department has given two grants totaling more than $2 million to UA to train experts to fight corrosion.
Countries and groups represented at the Thermal Spray Society's Cold Spray Conference will include: Toyohashi University of Technology (Japan); CSIRO Australia; Baosteel, China; Armed Forces University, Germany; Hanyang University, South Korea, and the University of Windsor, Canada. Corporations represented include: General Electric, Pratt & Whitney, Siemens AG and Sikorsky Aircraft.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.
