Refurbishment of torpedo ladle and locomotion axles through laser-applied surface engineering (additive manufacturing)
Acronym: Re-LASE
Funding body: Innovate UK
Status: Completed
The highly demanding in-service conditions of torpedo ladle axles in steel production and high speed locomotion axles result in high levels of abrasive wear (often during wheel removal) and corrosion, which raise concerns over fatigue performance.
Applying a suitable Laser Engineered Coating (LEC) onto axles can potentially generate large savings on replacement costs, as well as eliminating the CO2 burden of manufacturing new components. LEC technology is a recent development that has been successfully implemented in a variety of applications where resistance to wear is the foremost consideration and fatigue performance is not so important.
However, up to now there has been little development of metallurgical powders for enhanced fatigue performance. This research gap has limited the growth of LEC into broader applications, including axles, where behaviour under cyclic stress is a key safety concern.
This project will undertake a comprehensive programme of powder and LEC development to produce new coatings optimised for combined high fatigue, wear, adhesion and corrosion performance, which will be validated through both destructive and non-destructive evaluation.