Direct Laser Cladding , Current Status and Future Scope of Application
During the last decades Direct Laser Cladding has become an established technique in many industrial fields for applying wear and corrosion protection layers on metallic surfaces as well as for the repair of high value-added components. The most important
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Direct Laser Cladding, Current Status and Future Scope of Application A. Weisheit, A. Gasser, G. Backes, T. Jambor, N. Pirch and K. Wissenbach
Abstract During the last decades Direct Laser Cladding has become an established technique in many industrial fields for applying wear and corrosion protection layers on metallic surfaces as well as for the repair of high value-added components. The most important application fields are die and tool making, turbine components for aero engines and power generation, machine components such as axes and gears, and oil drilling components. Continuous wave (CW) lasers with a power up to 18 kW are used on automated machines with three or more axes, enabling 3D cladding. The outstanding feature of DLC is the high precision which leads to a minimum heat input into the work piece and a very low distortion. Due to the high cooling rates a fine grained microstructure is achieved during solidification. A new development in laser cladding is micro cladding in a size range below 50 µm especially for electronic and medical applications. Furthermore, additive manufacturing is coming again into focus as a clean and resource-efficient method to manufacture and modify functional prototypes as well as unique and small lot parts.
5.1 Introduction In the early 1980s of the last century with the advent of industrial high power lasers DLC was identified as an interesting field for researchers as a new technology for surface applications. Accompanied by the development of new laser sources (e.g., diode laser), improved beam quality and increased power efficiency laser cladding has become an established industrial technique during the last 2 decades for applying wear and corrosion protection layers on metallic surfaces as well as for the repair A. Weisheit (B) · N. Pirch · K. Wissenbach Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Lasertechnik, ILT, Steinbachstr. 15, 52074 Aachen, Germany e-mail: [email protected] G. Backes · T. Jambor RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany J. Dutta Majumdar and I. Manna (eds.), Laser-Assisted Fabrication of Materials, Springer Series in Materials Science 161, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-28359-8_5, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
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of high value-added components. The most important application fields are die and tool making, turbine components for aero engines and power generation, machine components such as axes and gears and oil drilling components [1–8]. Furthermore, new applications are on the horizon such as micro cladding for electronic components [9, 10] or the additive manufacturing of prototypes and even serial parts [11, 12]. This chapter will highlight the fundamentals of laser cladding, give examples for the effect on microstructure and properties, show current applications, and finally will give an outlook of the future.
5.2 Fundamentals of Direct Laser Cladding 5.2.1 Laser Beam Sources and Specific Advantages of Laser Cladding In the beginning, cw CO2 lasers were used for laser cladding since these were the first laser
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