Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225 – 231

www.elsevier.com/locate/surfcoat

Parametric investigation of pulsed Nd: YAG laser cladding of

stellite 6 on stainless steel
S. Sun*, Y. Durandet, M. Brandt
Industrial Laser Applications Laboratory, Industrial Research Institute Swinburne, Swinburne University of Technology,
533-545 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia

Received 15 December 2003; accepted in revised form 4 March 2004

Available online 3 September 2004

Abstract

A systematic research into the cladding of stellite 6 on stainless steel by pulsed Nd:YAG laser has been carried out. The effects of pulse
energy, pulse frequency, powder mass flow rate and spot overlap on the clad layer height, dilution and heat-affected zone (HAZ) have been
examined.
It was found that both the clad height and penetration into the substrate increase with the pulse energy, spot overlap and pulse frequency,
but the effects of these parameters on dilution are complex. The dilution reaches the lowest value (4%) at the incident energy of 18 and 25 J/
pulse, spot overlap of 89% and pulse frequency of 40 Hz. The powder mass flow rate of 22 g/min (for energy of 25 J/pulse and spot overlap
of 83%) produces thick clad layer with low dilution but results in the formation of defects. The hardness of the clad layer decreases linearly
with increasing dilution. No cracks have been found in single-track clad layers at a spot overlap of 89%, however, cracks occurred at lower
spot overlap. These cracks were eliminated by the multi-track cladding when the track increment is less than 1/3 of the width of track, which
is believed to be due to the remelting or heat treatment of the previous clad track by the subsequent track. The track bands in multi-track clad
show coarser structure, higher element segregation and lower hardness.
D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Pulsed laser cladding; Pulse energy; Pulse frequency; Spot overlap; Clad height; Dilution

1. Introduction the optimum approach to repair turbine blades because of its

Laser cladding is a laser surfacing process in which the
objective is to cover a particular part of the substrate with
material which has superior properties, producing a fusion
bond between the two with minimal mixing (dilution) of the
clad by the substrate [1]. The process has received a lot of
attention over the years and is now applied commercially in a
range of industries such as the automotive, mining and
aerospace. In the power generation industry, the leading edge
of turbine blades in a low-pressure (LP) steam turbine
becomes eroded in service by the water droplets in the steam
atmosphere [2,3]. Laser cladding has been demonstrated to be
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 92145624; fax: +61 3 92145050.
E-mail address: ssun@groupwise.swin.edu.au (S. Sun).
0257-8972/$ - see front matter D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2004.03.058
ability to produce controlled dilution and fusion bonding
between the clad layer and substrate and low distortion [4–6].
The laser used for this is normally a continuous wave
laser, such as the CO2 and Nd:YAG [4]. However, contrary
to the continuous wave laser cladding, the pulsed laser
cladding offers a number of advantages for the repair of
turbine blades. While heat build up during cladding with a
continuous wave laser is relatively low compared to other
conventional processes, it can be too high in some situations
leading to the undesirable effects of high dilution and
cracking of the layer. Pulsed laser cladding is one possible
solution to this problem, offering significantly lower heat
build-up in the workpiece and therefore lower heat-affected
zone, dilution and tendency to crack.
The laser power-off period between two pulses allows
the melt pool to solidify, therefore, the cooling rate is faster
226 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231
Table 1
The nominal chemical composition of Stellite 6 powder and the substrate
C Cr Si
Stellite 6 1.57 28.7 1.0
Stainless steel 420 0.41 14.30 0.70
in pulsed laser cladding. Hence, the microstructure produced
by pulsed laser cladding is more refined. Since the erosion
resistance is dependent on the microstructure, therefore the
erosion resistance of the clad produced by a pulsed laser
should be superior to that produced by continuous laser [7].
We have performed a series of pulse laser cladding
experiments with stellite 6 powder and stainless steel
substrate to determine the effect of laser operating param-
eters, such as pulse energy, pulse frequency and spot overlap
on the clad height and level of dilution, and examined the
correlation between clad layer microstructure and its hard-
ness. Stellite 6 alloy is normally used on turbine blades
because it offers very good wear and erosion resistance due
to its high hardness and good bonding strength with the
substrate [6,8,9].
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Materials
The stellite 6 powder used had the particle size in the
range of 53–180 Am. The substrate (10 mm in thickness)
was AISI 420 grade stainless steel, which has a similar
chemical composition to that of LP steam turbine blades.
The chemical composition of both clad powder alloy and
substrate is listed in Table 1.
2.2. Laser cladding
The cladding was performed with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser
at frequencies of 40 and 60 Hz with a fixed pulse length of 8
ms. The cladding powder, delivered at a given mass flow
rate, is injected into the laser spot on the workpiece through
a side injecting nozzle. The workpiece was fixed on a CNC
station which can move in both X- and Y-directions at a
controllable speed. For each pulse frequency, the pulse
energy was selected at 25, 18 and 14 J per pulse at
workpiece, respectively. The scan rate was selected to
Fig. 1. Cross-section image of single-track clad at pulse frequency of 40 Hz, spot overlap of 89% and pulse energy of 25 J/pulse.
W Fe Co Ni Mn Mo V
3.9 0.4 Bal. 1.6 0.3 0.6 –
– Bal. – – 0.45 0.60 0.20
represent the spot overlap of 83% (40 and 60 Hz) and 89%
(40 Hz only), respectively. The spot overlap represents the
percentage of the coverage of a spot by the following spot.
Both single-track and multi-track clads were prepared to
investigate the dilution and cracking. The multi-track was
achieved by moving the laser beam at an increment of 0.5, 1
and 1.5 mm between each track.
2.3. Metallurgical analysis
The microstructure was examined under optical micro-
scopy. The clad samples were cross-sectioned, mounted,
polished and etched with Marble’s reagent to reveal the
heat-affected zone. The thickness of the clad layer and heat-
affected zone were measured on the optical microscopy
images. The clad layer was etched electrolytically in 4%
nital at 10 V dc to reveal its structure. The variation of clad
microstructure along its length and height was observed by
optical microscopy.
The elemental analysis in the un-etched clad layer was
carried out by energy dispersive X-ray analyser (EDS)
attached to a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The
dilution is calculated based on elementary analysis for
multi-track clad and geometry measurement for the single-
track clad.
Micro-hardness across the clad and heat-affected zone
was measured in accordance with the ASTM standard
No.E92-82 using a Buehler MicrometR 2100 microhardness
tester. The test was carried out on the finely polished
transversally sectioned surface at the load of 100 g for a
loading time of 15 s.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Single-track laser cladding
Cross-section of a single-track clad produced at the pulse
frequency of 40 Hz is shown in Fig. 1. The optical
 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231 227

Table 2
Summary of the metallurgical observation of the single-track cladding
Pulse Spot Pulse Width Clad Depth of Dilution Cracking
frequency overlap energy of clad height penetration (%)
(Hz) (%) (J/pulse) (mm) (Am) (Am)
40 89 25 3.41 125.4 125.1 49.9 No
40 89 18 2.86 83.9 110.4 56.8 No
40 89 14 2.43 32.0 103.6 76.4 Slightly
40 83 25 3.38 62.9 136.8 68.5 Severe
40 83 18 2.89 40.1 124.0 75.6 Medium
40 83 14 2.31 20.2 118.7 85.5 Slightly
60 83 25 3.45 79.4 135.4 63.0 Severe
60 83 18 2.85 42.4 122.7 74.3 Severe
60 83 14 2.38 29.5 114.5 79.5 Medium

measurement and observation of the single-track clad layers
are summarized in Table 2. Both the clad height (i.e., the
thickness above the original surface of the substrate) and
dilution are affected by pulse energy, spot overlap and pulse
frequency. Under all conditions, the clad height increases
with increasing pulse energy because higher energy per
pulse can melt more powder and fuse it to the substrate.
The effect of spot overlap and pulse frequency on the
clad height depends on the pulse energy. At low pulse
energy of 14 J/pulse, there is no significant difference in
clad height under different spot overlap and pulse frequency.
With increasing pulse energy, the increase of clad height
becomes more significant under higher spot overlap (i.e.,
lower scan rate) and pulse frequency.
The depth of penetration into the substrate (the average
thickness of the clad below substrate) increases with
increasing pulse energy and pulse frequency but decreases
with increasing spot overlap. The variation of dilution with
pulse energy and spot overlap is similar to that of the depth
of penetration, however, the dilution is not affected
significantly by pulse frequency.
The width of a clad track reflects the size of melt pool
within which the powder is melted. Despite the constant
laser spot size, the width of clad increases and gets closer to
the laser spot size (3.5 mm) with pulse energy, but is
independent of spot overlap and pulse frequency.
Cracks in a clad layer are one of the major concerns in laser
cladding, as they can affect the clad application. Cracks can
be formed at both high and low temperatures. The high
temperature cracks were found at the high pulse energy (25 J/
pulse) with lower spot overlap (83%). During solidification,
the fragmentation of dendrites by the stirring effect of laser
cladding was observed. The fragments block the feeding
channel of liquid metal and therefore result in the hot cracks
[10]. Whether cracks occur after solidification, during the
cooling period, depends on the planar tensile residual stress in
the clad layer and its toughness. Low temperature crack will
initiate when the strain generated due to residual stress in the

Fig. 2. (a) Cross-section of multi-track clad showing clad and heat-affected zone and (b) morphology of the clad surface showing spot and track overlap.
228 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231

track. This affects the microstructure of the previous track

due to reheating or remelting.
The cross-section of a multi-track clad produced under
pulse energy of 18 J/pulse, pulse frequency of 40 Hz and spot
overlap of 89% is shown in Fig. 2a. The figure shows
uniform, low-porosity and crack-free clad with small depth of
penetration and heat-affected zone. The morphology of the
clad surface (produced at spot overlap of 83% and increment
of 1.5 mm) shows clearly the individual laser pulses (Fig. 2b).

3.2.1. Effect of powder mass flow rate

The effect of powder mass flow rate on the clad height
and its dilution is shown in Fig. 3. The powder mass flow

Fig. 3. Effect of powder flow rate on the clad height and dilution.

clad is higher than the plasticity of the clad [11]. The residual
stress is believed to be determined by the cooling rate which
is related to the laser scan rate or spot overlap, while the
toughness of a clad layer depends on its composition, i.e.,
related to the dilution. Therefore, both high- and low-
temperature cracks can be eliminated by slowing the cooling
rate and minimizing the dilution because the dilution of Fe
into the clad deteriorates the toughness of stellite 6.
Increase of spot overlap, by reducing the scan rate, can
slow the cooling rate, reduce the dilution, and eliminate
cracks as has been found in the clad with spot overlap of 89%.

3.2. Multi-track laser cladding

In comparison with single-track cladding, multi-track

cladding involves the overlap of one track by the subsequent

Fig. 5. Relationship of (a) clad height and (b) dilution between single-track
Fig. 4. Effect of track increment on the clad height and dilution. and multi-track clad.
 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231
rate was varied from 11.7 to 22.1 g/min at pulse energy of
25 J/pulse, pulse frequency of 40 Hz and spot overlap of
83%. The clad height increases from 0.24 to 0.49 mm while
the dilution decreases from 38% to 7%.
During laser cladding, the laser energy is distributed into
three parts: absorption by powder, absorption by substrate
and reflection by powder and substrate [12]. The laser
energy incident on the substrate is the energy remaining
after attenuation by the powder jet either by reflection or
absorption. The energy attenuated by the powder is directly
proportional to the powder mass flow rate [13]. Therefore,
with increasing powder mass flow rate, a greater fraction of
the laser energy will be absorbed by the powder rather than
the substrate, leading to an increase in clad height and
decrease in penetration into the substrate. At too high mass
flow rate for a constant pulse energy, insufficient energy is
available to melt the powder and fuse it to the substrate.
3.2.2. Effect of track increment
Since the subsequent track partially builds on the
previous track in multi-track laser cladding, the depth of
penetration into the substrate will be reduced from that of
single-track cladding depending on the track increment. A
geometry model was developed to calculate the clad height
and penetration [14].
In this modeling analysis, it was assumed that the
subsequent track melts the same volume of the solid material
Fig. 6. Microstructure of clad (obtained at pulse energy of 18 J/pulse, pulse frequency of 40 Hz and spot overlap of 89%) showing (a) track bands under low
magnification, (b) pulse bands under medium magnification and (c and d) dendrite structures in pulse and track bands under high magnification.
229
(including the previous clad track and substrate) as the first
track due to the similarity of the melting points of the stellite
6 alloy and the stainless steel substrate.
With increasing track increment, the clad height of a
multi-track layer decreases because of lower overlap of the
tracks and the dilution increases since the subsequent track
penetrates further into the substrate than into the previous
track as shown in Fig. 4, where circles are experimental data
and lines are predicted by geometry analysis.
The relationships of clad height and dilution between
single-track and multi-track clad layer at increment of 0.5
mm are shown in Fig. 5. The multi-track clad height
increases linearly with single-track clad height, whereas the
dilution in multi-track clad is about 50% lower than that in
the single-track clad.
From the metallurgical observation of the single-track
laser clad at the overlap of 83%, cracks were formed in the
middle 1/3 part of the clad where the deepest penetration
occurred. In the multi-track laser cladding under these
conditions, if the increment is smaller than 1/3 of the width
of the clad (for example, 3.38/3=1.1 mm under pulse energy
of 25 J/pulse), the subsequent track can cover and remelt the
middle 1/3 of the previous track where the crack forms
thereby eliminating it. However, the cracks remain periodi-
cally (in the distance of two increments along the clad) at the
track boundaries if the increment is larger than 1.1 mm (1/3 of
the width of the clad) for the pulse energy of 25 J/pulse.
230 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231

3.2.3. Microstructure of clad layer

The optical microstructure of clad layer under low
magnification reveals the track bands (bright lines as shown
in Fig. 6a) due to the coarser microstructure. These bands
are nearly parallel and spaced at 0.5 mm (increment). The
dendrites become distorted and coarser in the track bands
(Fig. 6d) because of the remelting of the previous track by
the subsequent track.
Under higher magnification, thinner bands are revealed
as shown in Fig. 6b. These bands are believed to be the
interface between pulses. The coarser structure in the pulse
bands is caused by the remelting of previous pulse by the
following pulse and the pulse band is much thinner (about
15 Am) than the track band which is about 70 Am because
the cooling rate in a pulse is faster than that in a track. The
orientation of the primary dendrites does not change in the
pulse bands but the secondary dendrite becomes slightly
coarser (as shown in Fig. 6c).
The EDS quantitative spot analysis of dendrite and
matrix of the clad layer for pulse energy of 18 J/pulse, pulse
frequency of 40 Hz and spot overlap of 89% is listed in
Table 3. The dendrite is a Co-rich phase (about 10% higher
than in matrix). Fig. 7. Hardness profiles across clad layer and HAZ in the clad produced at
frequency of 40 Hz and spot overlap 89%.

3.2.4. Hardness analysis

region, which suggests that there is adequate accommoda-
The hardness profiles across clad layer and HAZ under
tion of stress by the clad due to its toughness.
different processing conditions are shown in Fig. 7. The
The correlation between hardness and microstructure of
hardness fluctuates within the clad depending on processing
clad layer from the sample produced with pulse energy of 18
conditions. The average hardness of the clad at 14 J/pulse is
J/pulse, pulse frequency of 40 Hz and spot overlap of 89%
482 HVN, lower than 500 HVN (25 J/pulse) and 521 HVN
has been examined. The hardness in the finer dendritic
(18 J/pulse) because of its highest dilution (22%). Despite the
region is about 540 HVN, compared to about 500 HVN in
similar dilution, the clad obtained at 18 J/pulse is harder that
the coarser dendritic region (i.e., the track bands).
that obtained at 25 J/pulse due to the finer dendrite at the
The hardening mechanisms of stellite clad layer have
lower pulse energy. Therefore, the hardness of clad is affected
been investigated by Otterloo et al. [15]. The formation of
primarily by dilution and secondly by dendrite structure.
M7C3 and the metastable M23C6 carbide and the presence of
The hardness in HAZ displays a peak within the region
50 Am below the clad layer and then reduces gradually to
190 HVN, the hardness of the untreated substrate, at about
0.8 mm from the clad–substrate interface. The hardness
profile in HAZ and the thickness of HAZ are slightly
affected by the pulse energy because the higher pulse energy
melts more powder to form thicker clad layer rather than
heating the substrate.
The peak hardness in the HAZ is between 550 and 610
HVN, the value of pure martensite. Despite the appearance
of the hard martensite layer in the HAZ near the interface
between substrate and clad, there are no cracks found in this

Table 3
Normalized EDS analysis results of dendrite and matrix in clad (mass
percentage)
Cr Co Fe
Stellite 6 31.53 68.03 0.44
Matrix 35.02 60.79 4.19
Dendrite 25.84 69.58 4.58 Fig. 8. Relationship between clad layer hardness and dilution.
 S. Sun et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 194 (2005) 225–231
DO19 ordered Co3W precipitates have been observed. The
superior hardness of stellite clad layer results from the solid
solution hardening, dislocation–dislocation interactions and
impenetrable particle hardening.
Fig. 8 shows the relationship between clad layer hardness
and dilution which agrees with the work of Colaco et al. [7].
The hardness decreases with increasing dilution almost
linearly because of the reduction of Cr and Co in clad layer
due to dilution. This results in a decrease in solid solution
hardening by Cr and impenetrable particle hardening by the
Cr-rich carbides and Co3W precipitates.
4. Conclusions
The following conclusions can be drawn from the present
research:
(1) In pulsed Nd:YAG laser cladding the clad height and
depth of penetration into substrate, in the case of a
single-track at constant mass flow rate, increase with
pulse energy, pulse frequency and spot overlap,
whereas the dilution increases only with pulse energy
and spot overlap.
(2) Smaller increment can increase clad height and reduce
dilution in multi-track clad. The dilution in the multi-
track clad is 50% lower than that in single-track clad
when the increment is 0.5 mm.
(3) Higher powder mass flow rate within a certain range
(22 g/min for pulse energy of 25 J/pulse) can increase
clad height and reduce dilution due to the higher
portion of laser energy absorbed by powder, however,
defects will be produced in the clad if the powder mass
flow rate is higher than that limit.
(4) Cracks form in the middle 1/3 part of a clad layer in a
single-track clad only at lower spot overlap, i.e., higher
scan rate. However, these cracks can be eliminated in a
multi-track clad layer by reducing the increment to less
than 1/3 of the width of track because of the remelting
of the crack by the subsequent track.
231
(5) Hardness of clad layer decreases linearly with increas-
ing dilution. The clad with finer microstructure shows
higher hardness.
Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the Cooperative
Research Centre for Welded Structures and their sponsor
companies in the Power Generation industry for the
financial support under the project No. 2001-306. The
Cooperative Research Centre for Welded Structures was
established and is supported under the Australian Govern-
ment’s Cooperative Research Centres program.
References
[1] W.W. Steen, V.M. Weerasinghe, P. Monson, Proceedings of SPIE
650 (1986) 226.
[2] B. Staniša, Z. Schauperl, K. Grilec, Wear 254 (2003) 183.
[3] L. Shepeleva, B. Medres, W.D. Kaplan, M. Bamberger, A.
Weisheit, Surface and Coatings Technology 125 (2000) 45.
[4] Y.P. Kathuria, Surface and Coatings Technology 132 (2000) 262.
[5] T. Peters, W. Jahnen, Proceedings of EPRI ST7 (2002) (CD-ROM).
[6] H. So, C.T. Chen, Y.A. Chen, Wear 192 (1996) 78.
[7] R. Colaco, T. Carvalho, R. Vilar, High Temperature Chemical
Processes 3 (1) (1994) 21.
[8] J.T.M. De Hosson, L. De Mol Van Otterloo, Surface Engineering 13
(6) (1997) 471.
[9] V.M. Weerasinghe, W.M. Steen, Proceedings of the 1st Interna-
tional Conference on Lasers in Manufacturing, 1983, p. 125.
[10] K.P. Purushotham, M. Brandt, Private communications.
[11] M. Zhang, W. Liu, J.C. Goussain, C. Mayer, J. Fritz, Proceedings of
SPIE 3888 (2002) 307.
[12] H. Gedda, J. Powell, A. Kaplan, Proceedings of ICALEO, vol. 94,
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA, 2002, CD-ROM.
[13] A. Frenk, M. Vandyoussefi, J.-D. Wagniere, A. Zryd, W. Kurz,
Metallurgical and Materials Transactions 28B (1997) 501.
[14] S. Sun, M. Brandt, Geometry analysis of the effect of increment on
dilution and clad height in pulsed laser cladding, to be published.
[15] J.L. De Mol Van Otterloo, J.Th.M. De Hosson, Acta Materialia 45
(1997) 1225.