Applied Surface Science 388 (2016) 420423

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Applied Surface Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc

Experimental research of surface roughness and surface texture after

laser cladding
Damian Przestacki , Radomir Majchrowski, Lidia Marciniak-Podsadna
Poznan University of Technology, Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznan, Poland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The objective of the investigation was to identify surface integrity of machined parts after laser cladding.
Received 14 October 2015 Surface analysis was made by using novel metrology methods: auto correlation and gradient distribu-
Accepted 12 December 2015 tions. An Innite Focus Measurement Machine (IFM) has been used for the surface texture analysis. The
Available online 23 December 2015
study has been performed within a production facility during the prototyping process of new products.
There are many methods available for geometric and surface topography measurements: contact and
non-contact, micro and nanoscale approaches. An optical method based on the measurement of light
reected or scattered from the surface of an examined object can be used for this purpose. We have
tested the application of an advanced 3D scanner for this purpose optical scanner ATOS II. The scanner
ATOS II represents the optical method, i.e. the digital light projection (DLP) method. The system consists
of a projector and two digital cameras capable of supplying 1.4 million of measuring points per second.
This method enables to scan elements from a few millimeters to a several dozen of meters in size. The
roughness analysis is based on 2D measurements, which gave two-dimensional characteristics of the sur-
face. In last decades, the metrology of the surface layer notes dynamical development as a science. During
the last decades, many scientists and constructors became convinced that the third dimension should be
added to the surface analysis. At present, 3D analysis of the surface geometry is widely accepted. In order
to complete the topography analysis of the surface texture after laser cladding, our team worked out
original program for 2D and 3D surface analysis. It was called TAS (topography analysis and simulation)
and was based on Matlab software. Four modules were developed: the initial data processing module,
basic parameters calculating module, data visualization module, and digital ltration module.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Nowadays laser cladding is used in the oil and gas [1] mining [2],
nuclear [3] and injection molds. Components in these industries are
subject to very hard operating conditions which lead to high wear
rates. Therefore this technology has found relatively widespread
use for the protection of materials against wear, corrosion and oxi-
dation, for the deposition of self-lubricating coatings and thermal
barriers. Components such as drill equipment are repaired using
laser cladding and put straight back into service.
The regeneration of large and often expensive parts of machines
and devices like mining drill [4], gas turbine engines [5] or injection
molds is protable. The main factors which limit the lifetime of this
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: damian.przestacki@put.poznan.pl (D. Przestacki),
majchrowski@put.poznan.pl (R. Majchrowski), marciniakpodsadna@put.poznan.pl
(L. Marciniak-Podsadna).
machine parts are wear and chipping. Competition between man-
ufacturing companies associated with decreased with repair costs
is becoming more and more common. One of the more popular
method used during regeneration is laser cladding (LC). In this pro-
cess a high energy laser is passed over the surface of the substrate
material while a cladding material is added. The surface of the sub-
strate and the coating material are melted by the laser subsequently
welding them together. LC technology allows layers in the region of
0.53 mm to be created. Thicker layers can be created by re-coating
on top of pre-deposited layers. The process may be used for large
area coverage by overlapping individual tracks, but it is the abil-
ity to protect smaller, localized areas that makes it unique. As the
rst layer of cladding is deposited it will mix with some of the sub-
strate material. One advantage of building multiple layers on top of
previous ones is that less of the substrate material will be present
in consecutive layers. Layer or overall cladding thickness is also
important when considering areas where peak sub-surface contact
stresses may occur [1]. The laser cladding process offers the abil-
ity to locally deposit a wide range of benecial abrasion-resistant

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.12.093
0169-4332/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 D. Przestacki et al. / Applied Surface Science 388 (2016) 420423
Fig. 1. ATOS optic 3D scanner, the principle of triangulation and sample surface scanning.
materials like cemented carbides or hard-facing alloys onto those
areas of machine parts particularly prone to wear.
The surface after the laser cladding has a large irregularities
which cannot be measured by conventional measuring methods
commonly used in the industry. Contact methods that have been
presented in [68] have limited application in the analysis obtained
by surface during laser cladding process.
However, the full use of the possibilities of materials for regen-
eration by laser cladding method is possible in the situation, when
the known effective method of measuring the topography of the
surface is applied. The aim of work described in this paper was
to apply a novel solution of surface roughness after repair part by
laser cladding method. Therefore, a new method for measuring the
surface with high inequality was developed.
2. Experimental procedures and discussions
2.1. Description of Atos II scanner
An optical method based on the measurement of light reected
or scattered from/by the surface of an examined object can be used
for this purpose. There are several optical methods of measuring
the coordinates of 3D objects and many ways of qualifying them,
generally divided into active and passive. This division results from
the fact that passive measuring techniques work in uncontrolled
natural light and thus do not need any additional articial light
sources, whereas active methods engage additional light sources:
incoherent (e.g. projectors) and coherent (lasers) light sources. An
advanced 3D scanner ATOS II (Fig. 1) represents the optical method,
i.e. the digital light projection (DLP) method. The system consists
of a projector and two digital cameras capable of supplying 1.4
million of measuring points per second. The measuring range is
175 mm 140 mm 2000 mm 1600 mm. Thanks to the use of
special lenses and a high-quality projector, a very high resolution
of the cloud of points is achieved whereby one can scan (measure
point coordinates) elements from a few millimeters to a few tens of
meters in size. The scanner works on the principle of triangulation
(Fig. 1), i.e. the two cameras observe the pattern of spectral lines on
the detail being measured and for each cameras pixel a coordinate
point is calculated. The dedicated scanner software makes possible
a full measurement analysis, comprising dimensioning, plotting a
421
color map of deviations and producing inspection cross sections.
The resolution in all the directions (x, y, z) is 20 m.
2.2. Tas software
In order to complete the topography analysis of the surface, our
team developed original program for surface analysis, 2D and 3D
alike. It was called TAS (topography analysis and simulation) and
was based on Matlab software. Four modules were proposed: the
initial data processing module, basic parameters calculating mod-
ule, data visualization module, and digital ltration module. The
last one was Gaussian lter prepared according to the standard
project ISO/TC 213 N510 recommendations, described by formula
(1). Examples of ltration are shown in Fig. 2.
   2 
1 
 x 2 y
h(x, y) = exp + (1)
xc xc xc yc
2.3. Experimental setup
Four samples (Fig. 3) were tested using an ATOS II scanner. The
entire surface of the slab was scanned by means of the ATOS 3D
scanner (Fig. 1) and then using the dedicated GOM INSPEKT V7
SR2 software, a 3D image of the scanned surface was obtained.
In order to determine the 3D parameters of the investigated sur-
faces, it became necessary to develop an algorithm for processing
the measured data. After surface scanning the cloud of points was
obtained. To convert these points to rectangular grid the Matlabs
griddata function was used. This function ts a surface of the form
z = f(x, y) to the data in the non-uniformly spaced vectors (x, y, z).
Griddata function interpolates this surface at the points specied
by (Xi, Yi) to produce Zi. The surface always passes through the
data points Xi and Yi forming an uniform grid. Sample images of
the measured surface topography are shown in Fig. 4.
In 2002, the ISO technical committee TC213 voted the creation of
a new working group and assigned it the task of developing future
international standards for areal surface texture. They developed a
draft standard in which the 3D parameters are dened (ISO 25178,
2008: Geometrical product specications Surface texture: Areal
Part 2: Terms, denitions and surface texture parameters).
422 D. Przestacki et al. / Applied Surface Science 388 (2016) 420423

Fig. 2. Gaussian digital ltration impulse response and example with surface after honing.

Fig. 3. The tested samples.

Fig. 4. Sample images of the measured surface topography.

 D. Przestacki et al. / Applied Surface Science 388 (2016) 420423
Table 1
The values of 3D parameters of tested samples.
Material\thickness Technolase 30S Technolase 40S
of layer
1 mm Sa = 33 m Sq = 42 m Sa = 24 m Sq = 31 m
Sv = 159 m Sp = 164 m Sv = 130 m Sp = 143 m
45 mm Sa = 66 m Sq = 80 m Sa = 47 m Sq = 62 m
Sv = 267 m Sp = 204 m Sv = 307 m Sp = 237 m
The 3D parameters are divided into groups:
Amplitude parameters: Sa, Sq, Ssk, Sku, Sp, Sv, Sz.
Spatial parameters: Sal, Str, Std.
Functional parameters: Smr, Smc.
Hybrid parameters: Sdq, Sdr.
Functional parameters: Vm, Vv, Vmp, Vmc, Vvc, Vvv.
Feature parameters: Spd, Spc, S10z, S5p, S5v, Sda, Sdv, Sha, Shv.
The example of values of the tested samples 3D amplitude param-
eters are shown in Table 1.
3. Discussions and conclusions
The measurement system analysis is one of the most important
issues in the topic of quality management. There are many meth-
ods available for geometric and surface topography measurements:
contact and non-contact, micro and nanoscale approaches [911].
Optic instruments are well known and widely applied devices for
dimensional measurement with numerous advantages, among oth-
ers, ability to perform non-contact measurement and wide range of
different measuring applications. Unfortunately, most of the instru-
ments for surface topography measuring have vertical range up to
several millimeters [12,13]. Such devices are not able measure the
presented surfaces, because in addition to surface topography also
must add the curvature of the cylinder. That was the reason for
investigations on surface roughness of machined parts after laser
cladding by means of the ATOS 3D scanner. The analysis of ini-
tial studies and results conrms the correct direction of the study
related to the measurement methodology of the surface topogra-
phy after laser cladding. It was necessary to create an algorithm of
data collection, analysis, transmission and converting.
In our preliminary research, we calculated only the amplitude
parameters: Sa, Sq, Sv, Sz. It appears from the 3D images of the
scanned surfaces that there are differences in the values of the cal-
culated surface parameters. It seems that further studies should
include other parameters proposed in the draft standard ISO 25178,
2008. It is also important to conduct studies that determine the
correct size of the measured area. This may have a signicant inu-
ence on the values of surface topography parameters, especially
423
WC-Co WC-Ni
Sa = 61 m Sq = 76 m Sa = 53 m Sq = 68 m
Sv = 213 m Sp = 293 m Sv = 202 m Sp = 242 m
Sa = 105 m Sq = 132 m Sa = 87 m Sq = 111 m
Sv = 737 m Sp = 398 m Sv = 408 m Sp = 340 m
spatial parameters and hybrid parameters. One important aspect is
also determination of the credibility and reproducibility of surface
roughness measurement results [14], which will help us to deter-
mine the accuracy of surface topography measurement by means
of the optical 3D scanner.
Acknowledgements
The presented research results, executed under the domestic
project LIDER of No 141/L-5/2013, were funded with grants for
education allocated by the National Centre for Research and Devel-
opment.
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