Authors:
María Azpeleta (1), Piera Alvarez (1), Igor Ortiz (1), Asier Arizmendiarrieta (1), Diego Montoya-Zapata (1)
1- Ikergune A.I.E., INZU Group, San Antolin, 3, 20870 Elgoibar, Spain
Abstract:
In the context of large-scale parts manufacturing with laser cladding technology, the quality of the raw material conditions the quality of the coatings produced using this technology. The existing literature lists the different quality problems that occur in the process of laser cladding technology or focuses on the characterization of the powder feedstock. However, the relationship between the quality of the powder metal and the final properties of the manufactured parts has been poorly studied. Moreover, there is a need of defining permissible ranges of the measured variables (e.g., porosity and N content) that guarantee high quality parts. As a response to such a shortcoming, in this paper, we study the influence of the porosity of Stellite 6 powder on the microstructure and wear properties of laser cladding coatings. We compare two batches from two different suppliers with a noticeable difference in porosity level. We manufactured 3 prisms with each batch under the same processing conditions. The results of our experiments show that the powder with a higher level of porosity generates coatings with higher levels of porosity. These results demonstrate that the porosity of the raw material influences the quality, microstructure, mechanical performance and wear properties of the final part. These results also emphasize the need for common quality standards on the powder feedstock produced by different suppliers.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59499/EP246274806
