Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Laser cladding by blown powder technique is an advanced material processing method that can be used to refurbish or improve corrosion, wear and other surface related properties of parts. During the process, a defocusing laser beam is used to melt a thin layer of the substrate and powder is clad to form a solid bead as the laser beam scans away. Multiple overlapped beads are formed to deposit coating on a large surface. Although laser cladding has been extensively used in fabrication of engineering parts; however, only little research has been directed to the tool fabrication, specifically - cemented carbide tool fabrication. This is mostly due to the cracks and other defects that occur in laser cladding of these hard materials. Preheating is one solution that has been reported in the literature, but it has practical limitations. The cracking issue becomes more complex for tool repair in which the bonding area is small. Therefore, there is a need to understand the fundamentals of the laser cladding process and crack formation during the process, specifically when applied to hard materials such as tungsten carbide. The primary goal of this research is to develop an innovative process to achieve crack free cladding and near net shaping for tool fabrication and repair. To achieve this goal, research will be carried out on the selection of proper buffer materials and identification of optimized process parameters for complex tool fabrication and repair. Accomplishment of this goal will offer the repair of cemented carbide tools and fabrication of low-cost cutting tools as well as well-trained highly qualified personnel, capable of extending the application of this process to other areas. Thus, the results of this research will allow repair of broken tools and make available new tools at lower cost. This will boost economical viability of the tooling sector of the manufacturing industries that play a major role in the Canadian economy.