Laser Surface Modification

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Outline
• Process Descriptions
• Mechanisms of Laser Surface
Modification
• Applications

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
2
 Laser Surface Modification
• The laser has some unique properties for
surface heating
– The electromagnetic radiation of a laser beam is
absorbed within the top atomic layers for opaque
materials, such as metals
– There are no associated hot gas jets, eddy
currents or even radiation spillage outside the
optically defined beam area
– In fact the applied energy can be placed precisely
on the surface only where it is needed
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Advantages
• Chemical cleanliness
• Controlled thermal penetration and therefore
distortion
• Controlled thermal profile and therefore shape
and location of heat affected region can be
predicted
• Little-to-no finish machining is required
• Remote non contact processing is usually possible
• Relatively easy to automate
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Process Map

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Surface Modification
• Improved components with idealized surfaces
and bulk properties
– Particular parts of surfaces which are vulnerable
to corrosion or wear confined to small areas
– For large areas electroplating will be a better
solution
– for discrete areas the laser has few competitors
and can yield wide variety of surface modification

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Surface Modification
• Surface heating for transformation hardening or annealing
• Surface melting for homogenization, microstructure
refinement generation of rapid solidification structures and
surface sealing
• Surface alloying for improvement of corrosion, wear or
appearance
• Surface cladding for wear, corrosion or physical property
manipulation such as melting point or thermal conductivity
• Surface texturing for improved paint appearance
• Plating by Laser Chemical Vapour Deposition (LCVD), Laser
Physical Vapour Deposition (LPVD)

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Heat Source in Hardening

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Thermomechanical Diffusion Processes

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Laser Heat Treatment
• The initial goal of laser heat treatment was
selective surface hardening for wear reduction
• Now it is also used to change metallurgical
and mechanical properties
• There are many competing processes in the
large area surface heat treatment
• The laser usually competitive due to lack of
distortion and high productivity
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Laser Surface Applications
• Hardness increase
• Strength increase
• Reduced friction
• Wear reduction
• Increase in fatigue life
• Surface carbide creation
• Creation of unique geometrical wear patterns
• Tempering
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Features
• Laser heat treatment is used on steels with sufficient
carbon content to allow hardening and cast irons with
a pearlite structure.
• An absorbing coating is usually applied to the metal
surface to avoid unnecessary power loss by reflection
• The absorption coefficient can also be increased by
allowing a polarised beam with the electric vector in
the plane of incidence, to be reflected at the Brewster
angle (approximately 8° for metals)
• This leads to a unique process for transformation
hardening inside small holes - such as valve guides.
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Hardening Mechanism-Hypoeutectoid
• Consider the microstructure of a hypoeutectoid steel containing 0.35%
carbon. It consists of pearlite colonies surrounded by proeutectoid ferrite.
• On heating, pearlite transforms to austenite by dissolution of the
cementite lamellae, followed by growth of the austenite transformation
front into regions of high carbon concentration, at a rate controlled by
carbon diffusion between the lamellae
• Ferrite transforms by nucleation and growth of austenite at internal ferrite
grain boundaries, at a rate controlled by carbon diffusion over greater
distances associated with the size of the ferrite colonies
• The phase diagram shows that under equilibrium conditions, pearlite
begins to transform to austenite at 723◦C(Ac1), and that transformation of
ferrite is complete at about 800◦C(Ac3).
• The high heating rate experienced during laser heating (on the order of
1000 K s−1) results in superheating of Ac1 and Ac3, typically by about 30
and 100◦C, respectively.
• The heat is conducted to the bulk at a very fast rate which results in
surface quenching and martensitic hardening.

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Hardening

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Cooling Transformation

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Schematic of the Setup

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Process Description
• The laser beam is defocussed or oscillated to cover an area such
that the average power density has a value of 103 -104W/mm2
• Using these power densities a relative motion between the
workpiece and the beam of 5 -50 mm/s will result in surface
hardening
• If undesired surface melting occurs, relative motion should be
increased
• A decrease in power density will produce the same effect
• If no or lower than expected level of hardening occurs the relative
motion should be decreased or power density should be increased
• The depth of hardening depends upon thermal diffusion and hence
the heating time (D/V) and temperature
– where D is the spot size on the workpiece and V is the traverse speed
– Temperature is driven by input power intensity
– Hardening is a function of (P/DV)

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Hardening Plots

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Heat Flow
• The ideal power distribution is one which gives a uniform
temperature over the area to be treated
• The heating effect is dependent on the edge cooling and
surface heating:
– P/D and not P/D2 (where P is the incident absorbed power)
• Methods of spreading the beam to simulate this are
illustrated in
• Defocussed high power multimode beams (top hat mode)
• One or two axis scanning beams (dithered zig zag mode)
• Kaleidoscopes
• Segmented mirrors
• Special optics (axicon lenses, toric mirrors and kinoforms)

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Methods of Providing Uniform Power

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Heat Flow
• Idealized models of 1D heat transfer.
• A simple test to determine if this representation can be used
to examine the cross-section of a heat treated sample
• If the bottom of the hardened zone is flat and parallel to the
surface under the central part of the cross-section, then the
one-dimensional analysis will predict the temperatures in the
heated material with reasonable accuracy

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Heat Flow
• Transformation hardening with no surface melting is
the simplest process to model mathematically
– There are no unknown convection or latent heat terms
since there is no melt pool and surface heat losses follow
the normal rules of convection and radiation
– Empirical relationship between P/ (DV)I/2 and the depth of
hardness has been derived

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Austenitization
• The base structure consists of a non-homogeneous distribution of
carbon
– Ferrite
– Pearlite
• Upon heating above the phase transformation temperature, Ac1
temperature carbon starts to diffuse to achieve homogeneity
within the austenite phase
• A solid solution of C in Fe is formed

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Diffusion in Austenization
• The rate of diffusion is described by similar equations to that
for heat flow, but is usually much slower

• Diffusivity of C in austenite is given by,

• Diffusivity of C in ferrite is given by,

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Austenitization
• When austenitization has occurred the carbon moves
by diffusion down concentration gradients
• The time for diffusion within the austenitic lattice
varies with position within the laser treated zone
• In laser transformation hardened zones there is always
a region around the edges, if not throughout, where
the carbon has not fully diffused
• The resulting structure is a non-homogeneous
martensite
• It is expected that the higher carbon levels in certain
regions would lead to higher hardness levels and
therefore better overall wear resistance.
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Mechanism of Transformation
• On rapid heating, pearlite colonies first transform to austenite
• Then carbon diffuses outwards from these transformed zones into the
surrounding ferrite increasing the volume of high carbon austenite.
• On rapid cooling these regions of austenite which have more than a
certain amount of carbon (e.g. 0.05 %) will quench to martensite
• If the cooling rate is sufficiently fast although retained austenite may be
found if the carbon content is above a certain value (>1.0 %).
• The required rate of cooling is indicated by constant cooling curves,

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Diffusion
• The transformation of the pearlite is thought to proceed by diffusion from
the cementite plates into the ferrite plates, possibly starting from one end
of a pearlite colony
• This time dependent process does not take long but is sufficient to
necessitate some superheat above the austenitization temperature, Ac1,
to allow it to proceed during laser treatment.
• The superheat, and therefore the extent of the diffusion process, is thus
slightly affected by the prior size of the pearlite colonies.
• These colonies, on transformation, become austenite having 0.8 % carbon
• Carbon diffuses down the concentration gradient into the ferrite regions
where there is virtually no carbon.
• The ferrite regions may also have transformed to the FCC (face centred
cubic) structure of austenite.
• The extent of homogeneity of the resultant martensite depends upon the
size of the prior ferrite regions and the processing conditions

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Hardened Zone

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Properties of Hardened Steels-
Hardness
• This depends upon the carbon content
• It has been found that the laser hardness value may be
slightly higher than that found for induction hardening
• This difference is probably due to the shallower zone in the
laser process allowing
– A faster quench
– A greater restraint and hence higher residual compressive stress

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Patterned Surfaces
• Overlapping successive tracks induces a
thermal effect in the neighboring tracks
so that there is some back tempering.
• This is not necessarily undesirable since
it allows space for oil and wear debris
• Patterned hardened surfaces have not
been studied extensively as wear
surfaces mainly because prior to the
laser they were difficult to make
• The laser can make patterned surfaces
easily and therefore opens a whole new
study in tribology

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Fatigue
• In steels and cast irons there is a residual compressive stress
on transformation hardening due to the volume expansion on
the formation of martensite (approximately 4% for 0.3 wt%C
steel)
• This effect is particularly pronounced in the shallower
hardened zones formed with the laser due to the greater
restraint for such treatment
• Fatigue cracks are generally initiated at the surface by tensile
stresses thus the fatigue load must be sufficient to overcome
this residual compressive stress before a crack can propagate
• Improved fatigue life compared to induction hardening has
been reported with laser heat treatment
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Wear Resistance
• Wear resistance has also been found to
improve with laser treatment compared to oil
or water quench.
• On SK5 steel the pin on disc wear resistance of
laser treated surfaces was found to be twice
that of an induction hardened surface.

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Laser hardening @ IITB - Optics

Indian Patent Application No

442/MUM/2011 Filed on 17
February 2011

Method and device for

generating laser beam of
ME 677: Laser Material Processing variable intensity distribution
Instructor: Ramesh Singh and variable spot size
 Temperature plot & micrographs
in laser hardening
Temperature distribution for uniform moving
t 
2P dt ' z2 (( x  vt ')  x ') 2
T  T0  2 2 
4a(t  t ') 
exp[ ] exp[ ]dx ' 
8  K 0 (t  t ') 4a(t  t ')
y   2  x '2 y   2  x '2
[erf ( )  erf ( )]
2 a(t  t ') 2 a(t  t ')

(a) (b)

Temperature plot (a) (b)

(a)d= 400,(b)d= 200; Micrographs at P = 100 W and
(Power=100W, scan rate Instructor: Ramesh Singh= 600 mm/min (a)
scan rate
ME 677: Laser Material Processing

600 mm/min) beam diameter = 400 mm; (b)

Hardness Calculation & Hardness Plot

[24]

Microstructure of LSH specimen. (A- martensite

needles, B-transition zone, C-un-transformed zone)
(P=100W, beam diameter- 400mm, scan rate
400mm/min)(500X)

Hardness distribution plot (P=100W, beam

diameter 200mm, scan rate800mm/min)
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
 Comparison of Gaussian and Uniform
Intensity Beam

Contour plots for Gaussian & Uniform intensity beam (P=100W, Beam diameter: 400mm, Scan rate: 600mm/min)

Schematic showing ‘Gaussian &

Uniform intensity beam’ beam
hardened geometries
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
 Overlap Study First pass

•Objective
•To find the effect of overlap Overlap

on hardness and to find

optimum overlap Second pass
800
Hardness Vs %
700 overlap39

% number of fine grains (below 1.2µm)

600
38 57 90

% % % 80
Hardness(Hv)

500
70
400
60
300 50
200 40
100 30
0 20
10% Overlap 20% Overlap 30% Overlap
10
First pass Overlap Second pass ME 677: Laser Material
0 Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh No overlap
Unhardned 10% overlap
20% overlap
30% overlap
(P= 70W, Scan rate 600 mm/min, beam diameter: 300mm) 38
 EBSD Results in First & Second Pass

(A) (B) (A) (B)

Phase map showing martensite in(A) specimen without Inverse Pole Figure (IPF) showing martensite in(A) specimen
overlap (B) Specimen with 20% overlap without overlap (B) Specimen with 20% overlap

Increase in martensite and finer grain formation in second

pass
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Wear Test
Objectives:
• To find effect of micro-scale hardened patterns on wear resistance
•To compare wear of different hardened geometries & to find out
optimum hardened geometry

Different types of hardened patterns

Specimen size of diameter 10 mm and beam with size of 300 µm

ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Pin on Disk Setup

Pin on disk set-up

ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
 Wear Test: Key Findings
•Wear resistance improve drastically because of hardening.
•Whereas there is slight difference in wear observed in different
hardened geometries.
•Frictional force is inversely proportional to ‘percent area hardened’ .
**** Wear of fully hardened (overlapped) specimen is 58% less than
other hardened patterns(i.e. Square, circular, criss-cross).
90

80 8

70 7
60
91% 6

Frictional force (N)

Wear (µm)

50 5
40
4
30
3
20
2
10
1
0
Circular Criss-cross Square Fully Unhardened 0
Unhardened Square Circular Criss-cross Fully hardened
hardened
Wear for different hardened geometries
Frictional force for different hardened
geometries
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
 Laser Surface Melting
• For surface melting the experimental
arrangement is similar to that for
transformation hardening
• Unlike hardening, a focused or near focused
beam is used
• The surface to be melted is shrouded by an
inert gas

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Setup for Laser Surface Melting

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Competing Processes

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Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Characteristics
• Moderate to rapid solidification rates producing fine near
homogeneous structures.
• Little thermal penetration, resulting in little distortion and the
possibility of operating near thermally sensitive materials
• Surface finishes of around 25 microns are fairly easily
obtained signifying reduced work after processing.
• Process flexibility, due to software control and possibilities in
automation.

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Issues in Laser Surface Melting
• The following are key issues in laser surface melting
– controlling the reflectivity
– shaping the beam
– shrouding the melt pool
• Reflectivity is difficult to control due to the melting
process itself causing variations in the surface
reflectivity.
• The initial reflectivity can be controlled by having an
anti-reflection coating, but this is usually removed by
the melting process
• If the material becomes hot the reflectivity is reduced
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Metallurgical Issues
• There are three metallurgical areas of considerable
interest:
– cast irons
– tool steels and
– certain deep eutectics (which can form metallic glasses at
high quench rates)
• All are essentially non-homogeneous materials which
can be homogenised by laser surface melting

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Disadvantages
• Reasons of surface melting not very popular with
industry
– Surface melting is inferior to surface alloying’as the
latter offers the possibility of vastly improved
hardness, wear or corrosion resistance
– The very high hardnesses achieved with cast irons and
tool steels by laser surface melting are associated with
some surface movement which may require some
further surface finishing post treatment
– This is not so easy to achieve due to high hardnesses
obtained
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Materials Processed-Cast Iron
• Cast Iron is commonly used engineering material usually
consists of an inhomogeneous structure of ferrite and
graphite in various forms (flakes, spheres etc)
• On surface melting with a laser the hardening effects come
from changes of graphite-to-cementite and austenite-to-
martensite
• The precise value of the hardness depends on the extent of
the carbon dissolution from the graphite giving a variation
of hardness and structure with processing speed.
• The result is usually a very hard surface on one of the
cheaper metals

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Micrograph of Laser Surface Melted CI
Three melt interface regions for
laser surface melted flake
graphite cast iron are:
1. Fe3C dendrites in the
ledeburitic fusion zone
2. High dissolved carbon
(around 1 wt%) giving
retained austenite with some
martensite
3. Finally, full martensite and
partially dissolved graphite
flakes.
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Stainless Steel
• Fine structures are produced in both martensitic or austenitic
stainless steels as expected from the high values of the cooling rate
• Without the phase expansion associated with the martensitic
transformation austenitic steels have a residual tensile stress while
single tracks of martensitic steel are usually under compression
• However the residual stresses becomes tensile when annealed by
overlapping
• The residual tension adversely affects the stress corrosion
properties and the pitting potential
• The laser melting and rapid solidification have differing effects on
the pitting behavior of a series of ferritic steels
• Improved corrosion resistance of sensitized stainless steels has
been noticed due to the finer structure reducing the tendency to
intergranular corrosion

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Titanium
• Titanium and its various alloys can take up a variety of crystal
forms. In laser surface melting rapid quench structures are
formed which have a highly dislocated fine structures
• The process must be carefully shrouded due to the activity of
titanium with oxygen

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Tool Steels
• These materials are usually hardened by a fairly long
process of solution treatment to dissolve the carbides
followed by a controlled quench to give a fine dispersion of
carbides.
• These carbides do not temper as easily as martensite,
hence these steels have a high hot hardness and are
suitable for tools.
• In laser surface melting this dissolution is accomplished
very swiftly producing a very hard, fine carbide dispersion
with high hot hardness properties.
• The problem with the application of this process in
production is that the laser melt track will have a surface
waviness of around 10-25 microns and the track is very
hard to machine.
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Solidification Mechanism

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Solidification Mechanism
• Solidification will proceed as either a stable planar
front or as an unstable front leading to dendrites or
cells
• The process which will occur depends on the
occurrence of constitutional supercooling
• Constitutional supercooling is caused by the thermal
gradient being less steep than the melting point
gradient
• It is the result of partition effects taking place at the
solidification
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Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Solidification
• Consider a mass balance on the solidification front, the
gradient of the solute in the liquid at the solidification
interface

• Constitutional supercooling is absent when the actual

temperature gradient in the liquid at the interface,
G > (dTL/dx)x=0

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Solidification
• Nomenclature

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Scale of Solidification Structure
• If the dendritic or cellular structure is sufficiently fine then it is possible to
approximate the liquid between the cells as being like a small stirred tank
whose composition will be determined by the rate of diffusion out of the
cell depleting the concentration of the cell, approximated by Fick's Second
Law:

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Material Flow Within the Melt Pool
• Surface shear force =

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Laser Surface Alloying
• Surface alloying with a laser is similar to laser
surface melting
• Another material is injected into the melt pool
• Laser surface alloying is also similar to surface
cladding
• If the cladding process is performed with excess
power then surface alloying would result
• Laser Surface Alloying is therefore one extreme of
surface cladding.
ME 677: Laser Material Processing
Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Process Characteristics
• The alloyed region shows a fine microstructure with nearly
homogeneous mixing throughout the melt region
• Inhomogeneities are only seen in very fast melt tracks (~ 0.5 m/s)
• Most materials can be alloyed into most substrates. The high
quench rate ensures that segregation is minimal
• Some surface alloys can only be prepared via a rapid surface
quench, e.g. Fe-Cr-C-Mn
• The thickness of the treated zone can be from 1 -2000 microns
• Very thin and rapidly quenched alloy regions can be made using Q-
switched Nd-YAG lasers

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Competing Processes

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Process Variations
• The variations in processing are similar to those for surface melting
except that an alloy ingredient has to be added
• The alloy can be placed in the melt zone by:
1. Electroplating
2. Vacuum evaporation
3. Preplaced powder coating
4. Thin foil application
5. Ion implantation
6. Diffusion, e.g. boronizing
7. Powder blowing
8. Wire feed
9. Reactive gas shroud e.g. C2H2 in Ar or just N2.

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

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 Description
• Laser surface alloying is capable of producing a wide variety of surface
alloys
• The high solidification rate even allows some metastable alloys to be
formed in the surface
• All this can be done by a non-contact method which is relatively easy to
automate
• The laser offers precision in the placement of the alloy, good adhesion and
vastly improved processing speeds.
• Provided
• The mixing is good and uniform if the speed is lower than a certain figure
(e.g. 70mm/s for 2kW power)
• Some alloys suffer from cracking and porosity which may put restrictions
on shrouding and preheat
• The surface profile can be quite smooth with a small ripple of around 10
mm

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Titanium
• Ti can be readily surface alloyed by carbon or
nitrogen
• N2 can be supplied by nitrogen shroud gas
• One of the beauties of these processes is that
the hard carbide or nitride solidifies first as a
dendrite which would be hard to remove
• The color effects on titanium are starting to
attract the attention of the art world.

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Titanium Surface Coatings and Art

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 Other Materials
• Cast iron
– Surface alloying with Cr, Si or C are all possible methods to make relatively
cheap cast irons into superficially exotic irons.
• Steel
– Numerous systems have been explored
– Cr by melting chromium plate
– Mo , B, Ni
• Stainless steel
– The carbon alloying of stainless steel by melting preplaced powder has been
studied by Marsden
• Aluminium
– Surface hardening of aluminium by alloying with Si, C, N and Ni has been
demonstrated
• Superalloys
– have been alloyed with chromium

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Summary – Laser Surface Alloying
• Surface alloying has many advantages and
great flexibility
• The laser alloying process offers the possibility
of surface compositional changes with very
little distortion and surface upset
• This process has given engineers an option of
the material of choice for the surface as well
as the bulk
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Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Laser Surface Cladding
• The aim of most cladding operations is to overlay
one metal with another to form a sound interfacial
bond or weld without diluting the cladding metal
with substrate material
• In this situation dilution is generally considered to be
contamination of the cladding which degrades its
mechanical or corrosion resistant properties

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Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Competing Methods

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Schematic of Laser Surface Cladding

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 Laser Surface Cladding
• Thick section cladding (> 0.25 mm) is frequently
carried out by welding methods; substantial melting
of the substrate is produced and therefore dilution
can be a major problem
• Dilution is observed in tungsten inert gas (TIG), oxy-
acetylene flame or plasma surface welding processes
• The melt pool is well stirred by electromagnetic,
convective and Marangoni forces

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 Process Characteristics
• This dilution necessitates laying down thicker clad layers to
achieve the required clad property, but does have the
advantage of a good interfacial bond
• Negligible dilution is achieved in other cladding processes
which rely on either forge bonding or diffusion bonding
– Forge bonds are made through the impact of high speed particles
with the substrate (e.g. D-gun) or clad layer
– Diffusion bonding occurs between a solid and liquid phase
• The fusion bond is usually the strongest and most resistant to
thermal and mechanical shock, provided brittle intermetallics
are not formed.
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Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Laser Cladding Techniques
• The main laser cladding methods are:
– Melt preplaced powder
– Blown powder
– Decomposed vapor by pyrolysis
– Photolysis as in Laser Chemical Vapour Deposition, (LCVD)
– Local vaporisation as in Laser Physical Vapour Deposition
(LPVD) or sputtering
– Enhanced electroplating or cementation

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 Preplaced Powder Technique
• Cladding with preplaced powder is the simplest method
provided the powder can be made to stick until melted, even
while the area is being shrouded in inert gas
• Some form of binder is usually used. The preplaced powder
method involves scanning a defocussed or rastered laser
beam over a powder bed, which is consequently melted and
welded to the underlying substrate
• Minimal dilution effects were observed for a wide range of
processing parameters

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 Modeling of Preplaced Powder
• Theoretical modeling of movement in the molten front has
shown that the melt progresses relatively swiftly through the
thermally isolated powder bed until it reaches the interface
with the substrate
• At this point the thermal load increases due to the good
thermal contact with the high thermal conductivity substrate
causing resolidification.

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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 Blown
• It is one of the few cladding techniques which has a well defined heated region, a
fusion bond with low dilution and is adaptable to automatic processing
• A reflective dome such as this has been shown to recover around 40% of the
delivered power
• This is necessary when cladding surfaces of variable reflectivity such as machined
and shot blasted surfaces
• Blown powder cladding has the low dilution associated with forge bonded
processes but the good surface strength and low porosity associated with the
welding processes
• The covering rate for laser powers greater than 5 kW is attractive and when
consideration of powder costs and after machining costs are taken into account
then the process becomes economically comparable with other processes for
covering large areas
• This process has the ability to cover very small areas and in particular areas near to
thin walls which might be thermally sensitive, since there are no associated hot
gas jets

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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Schematic of Blown Powder Cladding

ME 677: Laser Material Processing

Instructor: Ramesh Singh
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