Role of Laser Cladding Parameters in Composite Coating (Al-SiC) on Aluminum Alloy

The effect of the different control parameters on the laser cladding fabrication of Al/SiCp composite coatings on AA6082 aluminum alloy was analyzed. A high-power diode laser was used, and the laser control parameters were optimized to maximize the size (height and width) of the coating and the substrate-coating interface quality, as well as to minimize the melted zone depth. The Taguchi DOE method was applied using a L18 to reduce the number of experiments from 81 to only 18 experiments. Main effects, signal-noise ratio and analysis of variance were used to evaluate the effect of these parameters in the characteristics of the coating and to determine their optimum values. The influence of four control parameters was evaluated: (1) laser power, (2) scanning speed, (3) focal condition, and (4) powder feed ratio. Confirmation test with the optimal control parameters was carried out to evaluate the Taguchi method’s effectivity.