Development of Laser Cladding Procedure through Experiment and Analysis Using Powder Blown Directed Energy Deposition

Abstract

Directed Energy Deposition (DED) is one of the categories in Additive Manufacturing (AM) that has increased its popularity due to the technological advancements in recent years mainly with advancements in laser power, application of multi-materials, and capability to print greater dimensions. We are experimenting with a particular process in DED, cladding. For our experiment, we implemented a powdered feedstock (Inconel 718) which was assessed with distinct types of substrates in an effort to reduce the time spent on trial-and-error development of cladding parameters. We developed a procedure to determine a good clad interaction after an examination of the microstructure and interaction of single beads and a hatched area. The results demonstrate the ideal powers to be applied in the three substrates assessed with correlation to the dilution percentage where our target ranged from 10 to 30%.