Laser cladding of TiC/316LSS and analysis of input parameters using response surface method

Laser cladding is one of modification surface approaches which can lead to surface with an appropriate mechanical characteristics like high wear resistance, high resistance from oxidation in high temperature. The aim of this process is cladding one composite, ceramic or metal layer on the substratum. It should be noted that regardless of cladding process parameters, the type of material cladding layer is one of critical parameters which affects on mechanical characteristic in this process. In this research, cladding of composite powder TiC/316LSS with certain volume percentage (TiC/316LSS) 5, 10, 15 on steel 316LSS by using laser type Nd:YAG is investigated. Output parameters include the value of porosity in cladding, the value of transverse crack and the value of dilution of cladding. With designing experiment and analyzing output results by using CCD approach, the effect of input process parameters on the quality of cladding surface is investigated. In addition, by obtaining optimized value of input process parameters for creating cladding surface with lowest value of porosity and crack, cladding surface with hardness of 660 HV 0.1 is achieved, which is 4 times harder than substratum with hardness of 150 HV 0.1.