Hot Wire Laser Cladding - Alabama Specialty Products, Inc.

Laser Cladding Services Alabama Laser provides laser cladding services, using lasers to deposit a layer of material onto a substrate by way of powder or wire. This process is emerging as a strategic technique for repairing damaged components and improving surface protection properties for better wear or corrosion resistance. Alabama Laser uses several cladding techniques, including:

Co-axial Powder

Lateral Feed Powder

Cold Wire

Hot Wire

Laser cladding provides minimal dilution and a small heat affected zone when compared to conventional welding. Laser cladding provides a metallurgical bond between the base material and the substrate unlike a thermal spray process where the bond is mechanical. Cylinder clad with Tungsten Carbide

Materials that we clad with include: Stainless steel Tool Steel Stellite® Nickel based super alloys Tungsten Carbide

After grinding

Cross section of part with 1-inch thick clad

Before grinding

Boiler Tubes - Hot Wire Clad Far left: A layer of Inconel 622 being deposited onto a carbon steel A210 boiler tube. Left: The tube was then bent 1D and 4D without cracking.

Code Stamp Certified: • ASME - S & U Stamps • NBIC - R Stamp

Hot Wire Laser Cladding Alabama Laser’s Hot Wire Laser Cladding combines a solid-state laser with a wire heated by a gas metal arc welding power source.

Hot Wire Laser Cladding offers improved performance over conventional surface coating methods, including: • No wasted filler material • Production repeatability • Stable production rates

Our track systems allow us to clad cylinders more than 60 ft. long. Cylinders with diameters from 1" up to 48" can be clad. Right: Hydraulic shaft is hot wire clad for enhanced corrosion/erosion resistance Bottom Right: Shaft repaired by use of powder cladding Below: Three of our track systems cladding tubes.

Tool and Mold Repair using Laser Cladding Using laser cladding, Alabama Laser is able to repair damaged tooling and molds such as this damaged tool from a metal folding machine. A powder clad was added to the tool and then machined to a smooth finish. The cladding process not only repaired the damaged areas to the tool, but also provided increased material hardness and greater wear resistance.

Damaged Area

Damaged tool on folding machine

Damaged tool before cladding process

Repaired tool after cladding & machining

Cladding of Flanges

Stainless Steel Flanges Clad with Super Alloy (before machining)

Flanges after machining

I.D. Laser Cladding In addition to our capabilities of cladding the outside of a pipe, we are also able to clad inner dimensions using both powder and wire techniques.

I.D. Laser Cladding with Hot Wire repairing damaged areas to inside surface

I.D. Laser Cladding with Powder

Metallurgical Analysis Micro structural analysis and hardness measurement of laser cladding processes are performed in our metallurgical laboratory. This allows a quick turn around time for analysis and reduces the response time to optimize process parameters. Hardness, HV

Clad: Tungsten Carbide Matrix

INC 622

Base: Carbon Steel Clad: Inconel 622

Steel

Clad: Inconel 622 HV indents

Base: Carbon Steel A210

Chart shows the hardness measurement of laser clad (at right).

Base: Carbon Steel A210

Repairing Damaged Shaft with Hot Wire Laser Cladding This shaft was sent to Alabama Laser to repair damage done to the original surface coating, which had rendered the shaft useless and irreparable in the field. The shaft had been coated with an “industry changing” ceramic coating that obviously did not live up to its claims. Alabama Laser removed the old coating by turning it on a lathe, then clad a .060” thick overlay of stainless steel to cover the shaft. The shaft was then sent to our machine shop and ground to print specifications.

Shaft with damaged ceramic coating

Completed shaft after finish grinding. Crack-free and ready for installation.

Visit our web site at www.alabamalaser.com or scan the codes at right to view laser cladding video clips.

Shaft after ceramic coating has been removed and laser cladding has begun

Powder cladding videos

Hot wire cladding videos

A Division of Alabama Specialty Products, Inc.

P.O. Box 55 • 55 Laser Blvd. Munford, AL 36268 Phone: (256) 358-9055 Fax: (256) 358-4515 E-mail: [email protected]

www.alabamalaser.com