Effect of laser beam incidence angle on cladding morphology in laser cladding process

The change of angle θ between laser cladding powder plane and substrate plane will lead to changes in cladding layer's geometric morphology. Therefore, we established a quantitative numerical prediction model for cladding layer geometry. In this model, we consider the variation of θ, the laser energy attenuation rate and the temperature rise of the powder particles. At the same time, the simulation results were verified by experiments. The results show that when θ is in the range of 50°~90°, the initial temperature is 298 K, the scanning speed is 3.75 mm/s, and the laser spot diameter is 4.5 mm, the Fe#1 powder cladding can achieve better forming effect on Q235. In general, with the decrease of θ, the height of the cladding layer decreases and the width of the layer increases. However, when θ is less than 50°, the quality of the formed morphology significantly deteriorated. The experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results, which verifies the validity and reliability of the model. This work provides a theoretical reference for further understanding the relationship between the laser cladding morphology and the incident angle.