Laser Cladding: An Innovative Surface Engineering Technique for Automotive Brake Discs

摘要

Laser cladding is a method to deposit a particular material on another surface. It enables materials to be deposited precisely, selectively, and with as minimal heat input as possible into the underlying substrate. This process improves a part's surface quality and wear resistance and allows for repairing damaged or worn surfaces. It is an eminent and effective process of repair manufacturing to create novel low friction materials for dry sliding. This technique is used in various industries, including automotive, medical, and manufacturing. Based on the powder injection technique, it benefits rapid production, parts repair, and surface coating, which often have low dilution, low porosity, and good surface homogeneity. Laser cladded brake discs are now well accepted in the automotive industry for their stable coefficient of friction (CoF), low wear of brake components, and minimum wear particle emissions. The future of next generation automotive brake discs lies with laser cladding surface modification, which imparts lower wear particle emissions with minimal deviation in the friction behaviour. This prolongs the brake disc's lifetime and prevents premature failure. The optimum CoF and lower wear rate would be the essential factors in selecting a coating material for producing stable friction layers in tribological research for brake discs. This paper delivers a broad understanding of the present state-of-the-art laser cladding process, mainly focusing on its application in the automotive brake disc industry. With the current research focused on next generation electric vehicles with zero emissions, this surface modification technique could be extensively used for coating automotive brake discs with powders such as TiB_2, TiC, WC, WC-Co, and other Fe and cermet or metal-ceramic alloys.