Laser Surface Alloying, Cladding / Laser based Additive Manufacturing

We have restarted this work since 2015. Between 1996 and 2002, the work done was part of my Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The localized nature of laser heat source provides a unique technique to modify the surfaces for enhanced mechanical properties. The ability to control the laser resolidification velocities and composition of the melt pool by optimizing the process conditions gives the opportunity to manufacture desired phases on surfaces of most metals and alloys. Several classes of materials are under study using Laser Cladding and Surface Alloying

Bearing alloy coatings

Bearing alloys contain dispersions of soft phase in a hard matrix. Immiscible systems such as Aluminium-Bismuth, Aluminium-Silicon-Bismuth, Copper-Bismuth, Aluminium-Tin etc., form candidate materials for bearing alloys as the Bismuth, Tin etc., precipitate as globules in the matrix that is much harder. Such a dispersion can be achieved on the surface of desired materials using laser surface alloying. The high laser scan speeds can simulate high growth rates during solidification and yield fine dispersions of soft phase in relatively hard matrix.

Microstructure of aluminium laser surface alloyed with bismuth. Bismuth is seen as white phase.

Computational modelling

The computational model developed for welding can be modified to obtain heat, momentum and species distribution during laser surface remelting. The thermal parameters thus obtained could be used to perform several microstructure predictions. One such study is to obtain the size distribution of bismuth particles during laser suface remelting of Al-Bi hyper monotectic alloys clad on aluminium substrate. The model involves homogeneous nucleation applicable for immiscible (critical) systems, diffusional growth and collision and coalescence due to convection in the melt pool. The model successfully describes the nature of size distribution (asymmetric, with a tail) and the average size as a function of remelting speed for the case of aluminium-bismuth studied.

References

Please Note that the soft copies of the papers are subject to copyright restrictions of the respective publishers.

• Singh UP, Swaminathan S and Phanikumar G (2022), “Thermo-mechanical approach to study the residual stress evolution in part-scale component during laser additive manufacturing of alloy 718”, Materials & Design. Vol. 222, pp. 111048.
• Shah N, John DM, Rahul M R and Phanikumar G (2022), “Microstructure prediction of eutectic high entropy alloy using physical and computer simulation for additive manufacturing condition”, Journal of Alloys and Compounds. , pp. 167268.
• Hariharan V, Pramod S, Kesavan D, Murty B and Phanikumar G (2022), “ICME framework to simulate microstructure evolution during laser powder bed fusion of Haynes 282 nickel-based superalloy”, Journal of Materials Science.
• Zhong C, Narayana Samy VP, Pirch N, Gasser A, Phanikumar G and Schleifenbaum JH (2022), “Heat Treatment Design for IN718 by Laser Metal Deposition with High Deposition Rates: Modeling, Simulation, and Experiments”, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing.
• Microstructure evolution during laser surface cladding and remelting of Al-10wt%Bi-10wt%Cu
  Amresh K. Gupta, Rolf Galun and G. Phanikumar
  Transactions of Indian Inst. Met. (2007) Vol. 60, Nos. 2-3, April-June, pp.299-302
• Microstructural evolution during remelting of laser clad hyper monotectic Al-Bi alloy
  Gandham Phanikumar, Pradip Dutta, Rolf Galun and Kamanio Chattopadhyay
  Materials Science and Engineering A, Vol. 371, Iss. 1-2, pp. 91-102 (2004)
  DOI
• Characterization of microstructure in laser surface alloyed layers of aluminium on nickel
  S. Bysakh, S.K. Mitra, G. Phanikumar, J. Majumder, P. Dutta and K. Chattopadhyay
  Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, Vol. 34A, No. 11, pp.2621-2631 (2003)
  DOI
• Transport phenomena in laser surface alloying
  S. Sarkar, P. Mohan Raj, S. Chakraborty, G. Phanikumar, K. Chattopadhyay and P. Dutta
  Journal of Materials Science, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 155-164 (2002)
  DOI
• Modelling of transport phenomena in laser surface alloying with distributed species mass source
  P. Mohanraj, S. Sarkar, S. Chakraborty, G. Phanikumar, P. Dutta and K. Chattopadhyay
  International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 298-307 (2002)
  DOI
• Laser Cladding with Alloy Systems with a Miscibility Gap in the Liquid State
  T. Maiwald, R. Galun, B. L. Mordike, K. Chattopadhayay, G. Phanikumar
  Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Materials and Materials Processing ICAMMP, Kharagpur, India
  Ed., N. Chakrabarty and U.K. Chatterjee, Tata McGraw Hill Publishers, Delhi, p. 831-835 (2002)
• Microstructural study of laser surface cladding of bearing materials
  K. Chattopadhyay, S. Sanyal, P. Gandham, R. Galun and B-L. Mordike
  Materials Week 2001 - Proceedings, Ed. Werkstoffwoche-Partnerschaft bR, Werkstoff- Informationsgesellschaft mbH Frankfurt, Paper No. 388 (2002)
• Quasicrystalline coatings through laser processing: A study on process optimization and microstructure evolution
  K. Chattopadhyay, K. Biswas, S.Bysakh, G. Phanikumar, A.Weisheit, R.Galun, B.Mordike
  MRS Symposium Proceedings, Vol 643, K15.3.1-K15.3.12 (2001)
  PDF
• Laser Surface Alloying of Aluminium on Iron Substrate: Experiments and Numerical Simulation
  G. Phanikumar, B. Basu, S. Chakraborty, K. Chattopadhyay, P. Dutta and J. Majumder
  Proceedings of the EUROMAT 99, Wiley-VCH, Berlin, Vol. 11, pp.425-430 (2000)