Application of laser cladding in mould industry

After working for a period of time, the surface of the die will fail due to wear, corrosion and other reasons. Usually, the die is directly scrapped, which will inevitably cause huge waste. The use of appropriate methods for mold repair plays an important role in prolonging the service life of the mold. There are many kinds of mold repair technologies, among which laser cladding is a new technology that is widely used and has good effects. At present, laser cladding, especially laser cladding technology, has the following applications in the field of mold repair:

(1) Die casting die repair. Metal pressure casting, especially light alloy pressure casting, is widely used in automotive, communication and other industries. During pressure casting, the molten metal fills the mold cavity under high pressure and high speed, and then the die is formed. During this process, the mold repeatedly contacts with the hot metal, which is prone to thermal fatigue, wear, corrosion and other problems. Although various surface strengthening technologies are widely used to treat the die surface, due to the characteristics of its process, a large number of die-casting dies can not be put into production every year due to surface wear, hot cracks and corrosion. This causes a huge waste. For these molds, the method of laser cladding high-performance nano coating is very suitable for repair. Due to the rapid melting characteristics of laser treatment and the advantages of nano coating, the surface performance of the repaired mold can even be better than that of the new mold. For example, the service life of the die-casting die repaired by laser cladding in an aluminum alloy die-casting enterprise was increased by 1.5 times.

Automobile mold: before repair → laser cladding repair → repair

(2) Sand casting mold repair. Traditional sand casting has a long history, but the efficiency of manual molding is too low. For large-scale production such as automobile parts, metal mold automatic molding is basically used. The wear of metal mold can also be repaired by laser cladding. However, compared with other molds, the precision requirements and repair difficulties of sand casting molds are much smaller, so most of the actual production uses atomic ash or resin for rapid repair, but the long-term use effect is obviously not as good as laser cladding coating.

(3) Plastic mold repair. Various plastic molds, such as injection molds and blow molds, also have problems such as thermal fatigue, wear and corrosion on their surfaces. Relatively speaking, the plastic molds are relatively complex and have high precision requirements, so the cost of their molds is also high. Therefore, the maintenance and strengthening of such scrapped molds are of more economic value.

Laser cladding repair of injection mold

(4) Repair of forging die. Forging, whether hot forging or cold forging, has very high requirements for dies. Moreover, the working condition of the mold is worse, and various problems are more likely to occur, resulting in damage and scrapping. Laser cladding technology can also be used to repair the surface cracks, defects and wear of such molds, and the surface of such molds can be strengthened by cladding high-performance alloy layer.

Laser cladding surface strengthening of forging die

(5) Repair of stamping die. In the process of cold stamping of metal materials, the plastic deformation or separation of metal materials is caused by the die under the action of the press. The wear of the die is a more prominent problem in mass production. Laser cladding can be used to repair worn or defective stamping dies. For example, the hot crack and bridge collapse at the root of the hammer forging die punch can be repaired by laser cladding technology, and the punch wear of the blanking die can also be repaired by laser cladding high-performance coating for size recovery and performance strengthening. For example, for Cr12 blanking die used for blanking 4 mm thick Q235 plate, the crack and edge peeling are repaired by laser cladding, and good use effect is achieved.

Repair process of stamping die

(6) Other applications. In addition to the above applications in mold repair, laser cladding can also be widely used in the repair of other molds or parts. Such as rolls, turbine blades and valves in the metallurgical industry.

With the rapid development of laser cladding technology, it is more and more widely used in the mold repair industry. However, there are still some common problems to be solved, such as the control of cladding cracks, the research and development of cladding materials, and the development of cladding process database.

Source: Guosheng laser