Laser Assisted Cold Spray of Inconel 718 and inconel 625 :The effect of in situ heating

Laser Assisted Cold Spray (LACS) was successfully used to deposit Inconel 718 and Inconel 625. The use of in situ laser heating during HPCS has been successfully used for the deposition of high strength steels, oxide dispersion strengthened alloys, WC cermets, and aluminum alloys. However, there is limited literature reported on LACS applied to nickel-based superalloys. In the present work, LACS was accomplished using a customized system with a 4 kW diode laser in combination with a high pressure cold spray system. As-atomized IN718 and IN625 powders were cold sprayed at a set of optimized HPCS conditions. The LACS system has an in-line optical pyrometer, and the surface temperature was set to 900 ˚C by using a closed-loop feedback system between the pyrometer and the laser power. The LACS experiments resulted in highly dense samples, and the microstructure showed the dissolution of the intermetallic network present in the feedstock powder. In addition, recrystallization and grain growth were also observed in the deposited materials. Tensile tests are being performed as well as microstructure and nanostructure analysis to correlate the evolution of the microstructure with the mechanical properties induced by in situ laser heating.