Laser cladding
As an advanced solution with unbeatable advantages, laser cladding enhances your machinery component characteristics and prolongs their service life. High corrosion and impact resistance are critical for demanding marine, oil & gas, and mining applications. Explore our laser cladding recondition capabilities for maintaining engine components.
What is Laser cladding?
Laser cladding is currently the most advanced welding method used for reconditioning worn components and improving their surface characteristics for the power generation, marine, aerospace, and oil and gas industries. Due to its characteristics, laser cladding has become the preferred repair solution for many components: piston rods, shafts, hydraulic cylinder rods, pistons, turbine rotors, and various other critical equipment.
How does it work?
Metal powders are injected by nozzles on the component and melted using a high-power diode laser beam. That causes the metal powders to blend with the substrate material creating a full metallurgical bond. Moreover, industrial robots and digitally controlled manipulators ensure the process’ high accuracy and the possibility of reconditioning components with complex geometries.
Advantages of the laser cladding reconditioning process
Laser equipment
Our laser cladding machines, the variety of cladding nozzles and heads he hold along with our machine shop, give us unparalleled capacity and flexibility to solve even the most difficult reconditioning projects and provide fast and dependable solutions to our clients. HLA (High-speed Laser Cladding) capabilities allowing very fast and economical repairs
6-AXIS ROBOT
CLADDING & HARDENING HEADS
PART MANIPULATORS
LASER CLADDING CELLS
Hydraulic cylinder piston rods reconditioning
Reconditioning of hydraulic piston rods by laser cladding presents a great alternative to other repair methods such as chrome plating or metal spraying. With laser cladding and our expertise, the procedure can lead to a complete metallurgical bond. At the same time, the risk of peeling off, corrosion, or surface defects drops to the bare minimum.
High corrosion and impact resistance are critical for demanding marine, oil & gas, and mining applications. As a result, laser cladded piston rods guarantee a prolonged, trouble-free operation.
Since laser cladding is a welding method, there is no limitation on repairing rods with deep damages and corrosion.
Laser cladding piston rods not only bring excellent operational advantages but is also the most environmentally friendly repair option, especially as an alternative to chrome plating that uses dangerous chemicals.
Now with the introduction of EHLA (high-speed laser cladding) in our technical capabilities, laser cladding offers not only the best quality but is also very cost-competitive compared to metal spray.
Four-stroke pistons reconditioning
The repair of cast iron, steel, or aluminum pistons is an advanced, cost-effective solution. We can recondition worn grooves on four-stroke pistons with laser cladding by applying a cobalt hard-facing layer on the groove walls. Using a high-tech procedure, we achieve a complete metallurgical bond with piston base material and prolong piston operation life at a fraction of the cost of a new piston.
Shaft Reconditioning
With its low thermal input, perfect adhesion, and availability of a wide variety of different metal powders, laser cladding is the best repair solution for damaged or worn shafts.
INJEGOV is certified by ABS for cladding of shafts, including tail shafts and rudder stocks, and has developed customized shaft reconditioning solutions for many different applications.
Indicative applications for laser cladding of shafts are:
- Tail shafts
- Windlass shaft journals rebuilding by laser cladding
- Bowthruster input shafts
- Gearbox input/output shafts
- Alternator Rotors
- Various pump shafts wore journals such as cargo pumps, seawater pumps. Laser cladding is ideal for demanding applications requiring high resistance in friction, seal salt, and chemical corrosion. Laser cladding can also replace ceramic coatings.
Due to the minimal heat input, we can recondition even small diameter shafts keeping very tight tolerances. For the same reason, there is little need for post-weld heat treatment. Additionally, through cooling downtime reduction, we achieve a shorter delivery time to the benefit of the owners.
Engine Parts reconditioning
By using laser cladding, we can recondition various engine components with unparalleled results in terms of quality and durability.
Laser cladding applications:
Piston Rods
Exhaust valve spindle and seats
Exhaust valve airliners
Cylinder cover seat pockets and O-ring grooves
Due to the minimal distortion, we can also recondition cast iron water jackets by applying an anti-corrosive layer.
Cast Iron parts reconditioning
Laser cladding can now bring repair solutions to various cast iron parts without the downsides of conventional weld methods like poor material adhesion, excessive heat input, and cracking. Another critical point, cast iron parts can be brought back to their original dimensions and enhance characteristics by applying special metal powders.
Cast iron parts repair includes:
- Cast iron cylinder heads
- Pump Casings
- TC casings
- Cooling jackets
- Engine Blocks
- Compressor blocks
Turbocharger & Turbine reconditioning
Laser cladding is the ideal repair solution for worn or damaged turbocharger or steam turbine components. In particular, turbochargers and turbines work at very high rpm and are subject to corrosion from exhaust gases, carbon residue particles, and water condensation.
Laser cladding with minimal heat input, full metallurgical fusion, and availability of a variety of different materials is the perfect solution for turbocharger or steam turbine rotors journals, compressor wheels, and labyrinths recondition. By applying special metal powders, we can not only repair but also enhance the anti-corrosive and hardness properties of the parts while at the same time meeting the tightest tolerances and avoiding distortion.
Parts we typically recondition are:
- Turbocharger rotor shaft journals
- Turbine journals and labyrinths
- Turbine or turbocharger casings
Our laser cladding stations, combined with our machining and grinding capabilities, allow us to repair a wide range of turbines and turbochargers of any size.