Comparison between friction stir processing and laser remelting processes of cold sprayed metallic composite coatings

•Metal composite coating deposited by cold spray post-treated by laser melting and friction stir processing.•After both post-treatments the formation of new intermetallic phases was observed.•The coating integrity is higher after friction stir processing than after laser melting. Friction stir processing (FSP) is applied for the post-treatment of an Al-Cu-Ni cold spray metal composite in order to produce an alloy coating. The results are compared with laser remelting of the same material. It was shown that both post-treatment procedures form an alloy containing new intermetallic phases AlNi and Al2Cu initially absent in the as-sprayed material. The integrity of the coating treated by FSP was significantly higher than the laser-treated one due to the absence of material melting, which can introduce significant porosity. Thus, FSP could be considered an efficient post-treatment process of cold sprayed composite coatings leading to the improvement of the coating uniformity and modification of the phase composition.