High efficiency laser cladding at elevated processing speed

Abstract

Laser cladding is a versatile tool to deposit functional layers on surfaces of work pieces. With a laser beam the energy can be brought localized to the interaction zone compared to other cladding methods. It is possible to keep the heat introduced into the work piece low. On the other side due to the track wise generation of the cladding the processing time is long. Due to these facts there is a great motivation to increase the scan velocity of the laser cladding process in order to decrease the processing time and decrease heat losses in the work piece even more.Nowadays laser cladding is often running with scan velocities of much less than 2 m/min. In this research project we increase the scan velocity about one order of magnitude. With the increase of the scan velocity the laser power and the powder feed rate are adapted in order to have comparable conditions for every scan velocity.It was possible to decrease the process time while simultaneously increase the efficiency. In actual work a basic understanding of the laser cladding process at these parameters is generated. Basically two effects are investigated. Beside the decrease of thermal conductivity losses there is a significantly more intense interaction of laser beam and powder particles at parameters connected to high scan velocities. Recent results indicate that the latter effect is responsible for the significant increase in process efficiency.Laser cladding is a versatile tool to deposit functional layers on surfaces of work pieces. With a laser beam the energy can be brought localized to the interaction zone compared to other cladding methods. It is possible to keep the heat introduced into the work piece low. On the other side due to the track wise generation of the cladding the processing time is long. Due to these facts there is a great motivation to increase the scan velocity of the laser cladding process in order to decrease the processing time and decrease heat losses in the work piece even more.Nowadays laser cladding is often running with scan velocities of much less than 2 m/min. In this research project we increase the scan velocity about one order of magnitude. With the increase of the scan velocity the laser power and the powder feed rate are adapted in order to have comparable conditions for every scan velocity.It was possible to decrease the process time while simultaneously increase the efficiency. In actual work a basic unders...