High performance corrosion resistant coatings by novel coaxial cold- and hot-wire laser cladding methods

In the last few years, coaxial laser heads have been developed with centric wire feeding equipment, which enables the laser processing of complex-shaped objects in various applications. These newly developed laser heads are being used particularly in laser brazing experiments in the automotive industry. This study presents experimental results of using a coaxial laser head for cold- and hot-wire cladding application. The coaxial wire cladding method has significant improvements compared with the off-axis wire cladding method such as independence of the travel direction, alignment of the wire to the laser beam, and a reduced number of controlling parameters. These features are important to achieve high quality coatings. Cladding tests were conducted on mild steel with a coaxial laser wire welding head using Ni-based Inconel 625 and Thermanit 2509 super duplex stainless steel solid wires in order to determine the properties of the cladding process and the coatings deposited. The corrosion resistance of the obtained coatings was examined by long-term acetic acid salt spray (AASS) and electrochemical critical pitting temperature tests. The test results showed that by using the coaxial wire cladding method, defect-free high quality and corrosion resistant Inconel 625 and super duplex stainless steel coatings with low dilution were achieved. The average pitting temperature for Thermanit 2509 duplex coating was 75 °C in 1M NaCl solution, which was comparable to wrought 2507 duplex stainless steel. Low diluted Inconel 625 coating survived the AASS test for 2000 h without signs of corrosion.