Porosity Control of In Situ Forming tungsten Carbide in Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM)
P. Sevcenko, A. Chrysanthou, C.Y. Kong and P. Nicolson
The effect of powder compression on the formation of porosity when heating with a laser beam has been investigated. The starting materials were elemental powders of Fe, W and C which were locally melted to form WC in Fe matrix by an in situ laser additive manufacturing (LAM) process. The resulting microstructures have been studied and chemical analysis has been performed. The main application for the process is for the production of WC based or carbide cutting tooling by very accurate deposition of hard-facing materials onto a steel substrate. Fe is used as the matrix material since ferrous alloys are employed as the substrate for these applications.
Keywords: Fibre laser, tungsten carbide, WC, laser additive manufacturing (LAM), in situ tungsten carbide formation, porosity control