Laser hot-wire cladding (LHWC) is a promising alternative method to other cladding techniques such as gas metal arc welding (GMAW), laser powder cladding (LPC), laser cold-wire cladding (LCWC). In LHWC wire is heated up close to melting temperature by resistance and laser energy is mainly used to melt the substrate surface to form a metallurgical bond. This method can effectively improve the stability and productivity of the deposition process, but also save the laser energy and increase the deposition rate.
Corrosion and wear are recognized as two of the most serious problems in the industry, resulting loss of hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Nickel alloy 625 is the most common material used in corrosion resistance application and Ni-WC system is used widely in wear resistance overlays. In this study, Nickel alloy 625 wire and Ni-60%WC wire have been deposited on the low carbon steel with a wide laser beam. A comparison between GMAW, LHWC, and LCWC has been made. The dynamics of the puddle and preheating process of wire have been visualized by a high speed camera. The heat input in LHWC and MIG has been analyzed. The microstructure of clads has been investigated by optical microscope, the chemical composition of clads has been measured by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), the hardness of clads has been tested by micro-hardness tester.