Laser Cladding with Diode Lasers

With laser hot wire cladding or laser powder cladding, the laser beam creates on the surface of the workpiece a molten pool, to which the coating material in the form of a wire or powder is simultaneously added and melted by the laser. The short period of exposure creates only a short warpage, and the cooling is quick. The result is a layer that is connected with the basic material metallurgically. It is tougher than those cladding coatings created by thermal spraying, and compared to hard chromium plating for example, it is harmless to health, too.

Cladding or the laser cladding technology is an established method for creating or regenerating high-quality laser coating that are supposed to protect metal components from wear and tear. These refined components are used in many different areas – from industrial usage in heavy industry such as vehicle production to agriculture.

Besides initial coatings, the so-called repair welding is also realized as wire or laser powder cladding. After ablating the old coating and cleaning the workpiece surface, very stable new coatings can be realized, at which the applied material is connected metallurgically with the basic material.

Diode lasers are the ideal tool for various forms of cladding. The basic advantages of the laser cladding process are high flexibility and short process periods, a low warpage of processed workpieces, and fine-grained coatings with excellent adhesion. The very durable surfaces created by laser cladding equipment also require rare post-processing.

Laser powder cladding process 

The laser beam connects the metal workpiece with the applied powder. Laserline’s LDM and LDF diode lasers achieve at the melting of metal powder outstanding results: excellent adhesion, high precision, almost no porosity, limited crack formation, a high degree of hardness, and low deformation. In most cases, the surface created by mixing does not require any further mechanical processing. In comparison, conventional hard plating methods such as plasma powder cladding do not achieve sufficiently long lifetimes.