Laser Pad Welding

Laser pad welding is a process where the source of heat necessary to melt the filler and the substrate is a focused coherent light beam. Filler, in powder or wire form, is fed continuously to a pool of liquid metal, which forms the padding when solidified. The entire process, due to the need to maintain extreme precision and comply with occupational health and safety requirements, occurs in a fully robotized manner.

Compared to conventional pad welding methods, laser pad welding offers a number of advantages:

• small width of the heat affected zone,
• minimum mixing of the filler and the substrate,
• high process speeds can be achieved,
• low deformation of the parent material after the pad welding process,
• low thickness padding (~ 0.5 mm) can be achieved,
• preferred fine-grained structures in the padded material due to the solidification rate can also be achieved.

Most common materials used in laser pad welding are:

• iron-based alloys,
• nickel-based alloys,
• cobalt-based alloys,
• copper alloys,
• alloys containing hard carbides,
• bearing alloys.