Stainless steel powders with different molybdenum (Mo) contents were deposited on the substrate surface of 45 steel using a 6 kW fiber laser. The microstructure, phase, microhardness, wear properties, and corrosion resistance of coatings with different Mo contents were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), microhardness tester, wear tester, and electrochemical techniques. The results show that good metallurgical bonding was achieved between the stainless steel coating and the substrate. The amount of M₇(C, B)₃ type borocarbide decreases and that of M₂B and M₂₃(C, B)₆ type borocarbides increases with the increase of Mo content in the coatings. The amount of martensite decreases, while the amount of ferrite gradually increases with the increase of Mo content. When the Mo content is 4.0 wt. %, Mo₂C phase appears in the coating. The microstructure of the coating containing Mo is finer than that of the Mo-free coating. The microhardness decreases and the wear resistance of the coating gradually improves with the increase of Mo content. The wear resistance of the 6.0 wt. % Mo coating is about 3.7 times that of the Mo-free coating. With the increase of Mo content, the corrosion resistance of the coating firstly increases and then decreases. When the Mo content is 2.0 wt. %, the coating has the best corrosion resistance.

In this study, WC reinforced Ni-based composite coatings with Y₂O₃ addition were deposited on Ti-6Al-4V titanium substrate by laser cladding. The phases, microstructure, microhardness and wear resistance of the composite coatings were studied by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, microhardness tester and wear tester. The results showed that good metallurgical bonding was achieved between the composite coatings and substrate. The phases mainly were γ-Ni, TiC, TiB₂, Ni₃B, M₂₃C₆ and WC. Most of the WC was dissolved in small pieces of WC during the laser cladding process. The microhardness of the composite coatings was about 3 times that of the titanium substrate and the wear resistance of the composite coatings had a significant increase.

Automatic joint detection is of vital importance for the teaching of robots before welding and the seam tracking during welding. For narrow butt joints, the traditional structured light method may be ineffective, and many existing detection methods designed for narrow butt joints can only detect their 2D position. However, for butt joints with narrow gaps and 3D trajectories, their 3D position and orientation of the workpiece surface are required. In this paper, a vision based detection method for narrow butt joints is proposed. A crosshair laser is projected onto the workpiece surface and an auxiliary light source is used to illuminate the workpiece surface continuously. Then, images with an appropriate grayscale distribution are grabbed with the auto exposure function of the camera. The 3D position of the joint and the normal vector of the workpiece surface are calculated by the combination of the 2D and 3D information in the images. In addition, the detection method is applied in a robotic seam tracking system for GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding). Different filtering methods are used to smooth the detection results, and compared with the moving average method, the Kalman filter can reduce the dithering of the robot and improve the tracking accuracy significantly.

Ni-based alloy powders with different contents of cobalt (Co) have been deposited on a 42CrMo steel substrate surface using a fiber laser. The effects of Co content on the microstructure, composition, hardness, and wear properties of the claddings were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), a hardness tester, and a wear tester. The results show that the phases in the cladding layers are mainly γ, M₇(C, B)₃, M₂₃(C, B)₆, and M₂B. With the increase in Co content, the amounts of M₇(C, B)₃, M₂₃(C, B)₆, and M₂B gradually decrease, and the width of the eutectic structure in the cladding layer also gradually decreases. The microhardness decreases but the wear resistance of the cladding layer gradually improves with the increase of Co content. The wear resistance of the NiCo30 cladding layer is 3.6 times that of the NiCo00 cladding layer. With the increase of Co content, the wear mechanism of the cladding layer is changed from abrasive wear to adhesive wear.