Research Projects

Repeatability and reproducibility of mechanical and metallurgical properties in laser surface hardening, cladding and additive manufacturing (LAM) process is a major issue; because each layer undergoes different thermal cycles. These properties are governed by the mode of solidification and the resulting microstructures which, in turn depends on the cooling rate and temperature gradient. Therefore, online thermal monitoring with feedback control to address this issue, optimum strategy for LAM, and refurbishing engineering parts with different hardfacing materials including functionally graded deposition will be developed. Control of microstructure in functionally graded deposition will be attempted by laser hybrid cold spray process. For large surface area coverage in laser processing of engineering parts with high throughput laser beam shaping will be augmented. Little explored mechanical behaviour of selective laser sintered components under dynamic loading will be investigated. Process modeling of microstructure and mechanical properties also will be done for industrial implementation.