Laser cladding can be divided into two main categories according to the cladding material’s supply method, i.e., pre-set laser cladding and synchronous laser cladding.
Pre-set laser cladding is to place the cladding material on the substrate’s surface beforehand, and then use laser beam irradiation to scan and melt the cladding material. The content is added in the form of powder, wire, or sheet, with dust being the most common.
Simultaneous laser cladding is where the cladding material is fed directly into the laser beam so that both feeding and coating can be done simultaneously. The molten metal is also supplied primarily in the form of powder, but some also use wire or sheet for simultaneous feeding.
The primary process of pre-set laser cladding is pretreatment of substrate cladding surface — pre-set cladding material — preheating — pre-set cladding material — Laser melting – post heat treatment.
The primary process of synchronous laser cladding is the substrate cladding surface pretreatment — feeding laser melting— post-heat treatment.