Product Code: ICAL05_P574

Monitoring Laser Cladding
Authors:
Keng Leong, SiMMtec; Allison Park PA USA
H.C. Man, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Hung Hom Hong Kong
Kenneth Ho, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Hung Hom Hong Kong
Presented at ICALEO 2005

Laser cladding is used in the repair of high value industrial components such as rollers, axles and turbine blades. The absence of defects is essential to the remanufacturing process. Consequently, a non-intrusive cladding monitor that is robust in detecting defects and minimizes false positives would be very desirable. We report in this work a method for the monitoring of laser cladding. It is an adaptation of a commercially available weld monitoring technique that has been successfully implemented for the laser welding of automotive components. The principal is based on the sensing of the infrared energy emitted during the cladding process.

Controlled experiments were performed to explore the range and precision of the cladding process parameters and results that can be monitored by sensing the infrared emission. The focus of the investigation was on the ability to monitor clads of different thicknesses. Results obtained indicate a good correlation of the detector output with clad thickness for different parameters of laser power and traverse speed. The sensitivity of the detector response varied with different process conditions. The robustness of the response for cladding monitoring is discussed and further work is necessary to determine defects.