Full-Service Supplier of Thermal Spray Coating, Laser Cladding, and Machining
On-Site Laser Cladding Services
On-Site Laser Cladding Offers Durable Restoration Done with Minimum Downtime
Large, mission critical equipment costs money every hour that it is out of service, and bringing it back online quickly is essential to the operator. Unlike thermal spray repairs, Belzona, or sleeves, laser clad repairs are not a patch. The applied material is welded in place, metallurgically alloyed to the original component. Laser clad repairs can be ground or machined without risk of coming loose or peeling away, and the material added can be as hard and robust as the base metal. When time is of the essence, a laser clad repair can be done on site and often in place to get your machine back online quickly and keep it running without risk of failure.
When metal is lost due to slow, progressive wear or a single catastrophic failure, it may be replaced in-situ by laser cladding and then machined to original dimensions to restore shape and fit. To accomplish a laser clad repair, the worn area must be exposed and made accessible to our robotic manipulator. The laser, powder feed system, and robot controller can be located a short distance away. Our technician will then program the robot’s motion to cover the wear area cleanly and uniformly to deposit welded metal filler slightly beyond the original shape. When deposition is complete, conventional machining techniques can be used, if needed, to bring the deposited material back to required dimensions.
On-Site Laser Cladding Applications
Power Generation
Turbine shaft bearing fits, airfoil leading edges, and other critical features of large equipment that is difficult and expensive to disassemble and transport can be repaired in place, eliminating much of the time and cost of disassembly and reassembly. If the repair area can be made accessible, our equipment can be staged to move in quickly and deposit material precisely where it is needed.
Pulp and Paper
Machine downtime is a significant loss to a mill running at capacity. When spares of the machine’s largest components are not available, an onsite repair by laser cladding can get rolls and driveline components back in operation quickly and without the need for planning a second shutdown to implement a more durable repair. Laser deposited metal is genuinely welded in place and will not peel or delaminate over time.
Heavy Manufacturing
From stamping presses to rolling mills, high-uptime machinery can be forced into idle by mechanical failure. Lubricating systems may run dry or a bearing may seize, and, if spares are not on hand, the cost of downtime can mount quickly. On-site teams can be dispatched quickly to get to the site, plan the repair, and execute it in far less time than it would take to tear the machine down and send the failed part out for service.
On-site Laser Cladding Application Criteria
The most critical factor for onsite cladding is the accessibility of the area to be repaired. Our robotic cladding system uses a six-axis robotic manipulator approximately the size of a large man. If the damage can be reached, and the material can be welded, it is likely that our on-site team can accomplish an effective repair. After application, finishing of the applied material to size and shape is often necessary, and planning for the repair should consider the means by which this will be accomplished. Hand grinding and polishing are sometimes sufficient; precision machining or milling may not be practical in-situ. Laser clad repairs are a welding process, and although the heat input into the substrate is minimal, often well under 500F, consideration must be made for the effects of welding on the substrate and the compatibility of the selected filler material.
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