: Ollier, B.; Pirch, N.; Kreutz, E.W.

Abstract
Laser cladding is a method to deposit coatings on surfaces, that enable an improvement of the chemical and tribological resistance by hardfacing. Theoretical and experimental results for the characterisation of the influencing variables on the cladding process are presented. Physical mechanisms which influence the one-step laser cladding process are discussed as a function of the material properties and the processing variables. Numerical calculations lead to a better understanding of the laser cladding and support the necessary experimental investigations for the process development. Therefore, a two-dimensional heat conduction model delivers the stationary temperature field regarding the thermocapillary convection. The cladding process is described by a system of simultaneous nonlinear differential equations. Based on these calculations 'he influence of the scanning velocity, the intensity distribution and the powder mass stream on the resulting clad height and the degree of dilution are discussed. A comparison of the calculations with experimental results shows that the two-dimensional simulation yields realistic results regarding clad geometry and dilution in dependance on the processing variables.