Product Code: ICA13_1703

A Highly Versatile Novel Technique Based on Laser Cladding to Produce Coatings in the Micrometer Range
Authors:
Jesus Del Val, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Fernando Lusquinos, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Rafael Comesana, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Antonio Riveiro, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Felix Quintero, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Juan Pou, University of Vigo; Vigo Spain
Presented at ICALEO 2013

The fabrication of microproducts is being one of the most active industries in the last years, with a huge increase in the demand of new solutions and products in different fields of application such as medicine, microelectronics, automotive and telecommunication industry.

There is a variety of well-established techniques to produce microproducts; subtractive techniques as microdrilling, microcutting and microtexturing, as well as additive techniques like thin film or sputtering. However to face new challenges in the world of micromanufacturing the industry has to develop new techniques. In that sense, the laser microcladding is showed in this work as a promising new technique to obtain microproducts, which can be seen as a downscaling of the firmly established conventional laser cladding technique. This approach combines the easy implementation and automation of laser cladding in the industry, as well as a high versatility, with the production of coatings and pieces in the micrometer range. Thus allowing to work close to sensitive elements due to the reduced thermal load applied and keeping the good mechanical properties of the coating material.

With the objective of giving an adequate response to the new requirements of microproducts, a new experimental set-up has been built based on a high brightness and high quality laser beam. Moreover, a novel powder stream conveying system has been developed to obtain a stable stream of micron and submicron particles of different materials. The feasibility of the laser microcladding has been tested with a systematic study of the influence of several processing parameters, with a wide range of materials of different nature, to create tracks whose geometrical and mechanical properties have been studied.