The laser cladding of an Al-Li (8090) alloy with silicon Available to Purchase

Experiments have been carried out using laser cladding for the modification of the surface chemistry of an Al-Li (8090) alloy. The objective was to explore the possibility of utilising laser processing to produce controlled alloying zones for fusion bonding prior to superplastic forming. The cladding processes that were used are described in this paper and the results of the cladding experiments are presented. It is shown that cladding of 8090 material with silicon is successful in terms of the ability to obtain uniform and acceptable distortion-free clad layers on 1.6 mm thick sheets. Careful process control resulted in the optimisation of the cladding conditions for successfully obtaining good fusion bonds between sheets of the 8090 material.