Experimental investigation of direct diamond laser cladding in combination with high speed camera based process monitoring

Laser cladding is an established coating technology which is established as emerging technology for repair applications and for the fabrication of near net shape geometries. Within the scope of coating, repair and additive manufacturing applications single weld tracks are generated on a metal substrate by a laser beam and simultaneously injected metal powder. For coating applications, such as wear-resistant coatings, single weld tracks are positioned next to each other in order to form a continuous surface layer. Coatings against heavy abrasive wear often contain additional particles like tungsten carbide or diamond particles. However, by embedding wear-resistant particles like tungsten or diamond particles, varying applications can be addressed. For example, the cutting ability of industrial tools can be enhanced by embedding diamonds into a coating. In this paper, a novel approach, the direct embedding of diamonds without using a metal matrix during laser cladding is experimentally investigated. As diam...