Investigation of the effect of laser cladding parameters in automotive industry

Today, laser technology continues to evolve using many different areas. By bringing together different disciplines in their practice; health, automotive, aviation and many other areas. The laser cladding process is being performed, the wire or powder filler material that is focused on the laser beam can be added to the base metal surface by melting. In this study, it is aimed to understand the effects of process parameters on the application of the laser cladding process to the metal elements of automotive sheet metal forming dies/molds by powder filling material and to eliminate the two main problems of surface crack and porosity formation in the weld zone. Many parameters affect the quality of the laser cladding: the main material composition to be filled, the mechanical properties of the material, the powder composition (powder type) to be used for the filler, powder grain size, cladding parameters (laser power, cladding speed, cladding thickness, powder feed distance, argon gas flow rate), the heat input to the cladding zone, the laser cladding zone cooling rate, the distance between the welds, the process direction and the number of layers depending on these parameters. The study was conducted, the effects of cracking and porosity formation on the welding parameters (power, feed rate, powder flow rate, powder grain size, powder feed distance, argon gas velocity, distance between cladding lines, process direction, number of cladding layers) were investigated by using Taguchi methode.