A New Level for Successful Dimensional Restoration by Cold Spray

Abstract

This article introduces "Smart Repair," an integrated scan-to-repair workflow that advances robotic cold spray additive manufacturing (CSAM) beyond the traditional trade-off between flexible manual repair and rigid, pre-programmed robotic repair. Built on CSIRO's Continuous3D software platform, the system uses in-cell 3D scanning to generate a live digital model of a damaged component, automatically identifying repair regions and generating collision-free, optimized robotic toolpaths without manual coding or reliance on CAD files. A case study restoring a PT6 gearbox housing demonstrates that this approach enables efficient, high-quality automated repair of one-off and variably damaged parts that were previously impractical to automate.