Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

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Journal of Manufacturing Processes

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

Technical Paper

Effects of tilt angle between laser nozzle and substrate on bead morphology T
in multi-axis laser cladding
⁎
Jingbin Haoa, , Qingdong Menga, Congcong Lia, Zhixiong Lib, Dazhong Wub
a
School of Mechatronic Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China
b
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, 32816, USA

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Laser cladding has been increasingly used for repairing and remanufacturing critical and high-value components
Laser cladding due to its unique benefits such as high solidification rates and a small heat-affected zone. In laser cladding, tilt
Bead morphology angle between a laser nozzle and a substrate has a significant impact on deposited bead morphology. To ensure
Tilting posture the quality of laser cladding, the effects of tilt angle on bead morphology are investigated in this study. An
Laser beam power distribution
analytical model is introduced to predict bead shapes for three tilting postures. In the first case, a substrate
Gravity effect
remains horizontal while the nozzle is tilted. All three parameters, including width, height, and peak point offset,
will be influenced by the laser beam power distribution. In the second case, a substrate is tilted while the laser
nozzle is kept axial to the substrate’s normal, the peak point offset will ascend along with the increasing of the
tilt angle (gravity effect). In the third case, the laser nozzle remains vertical while the substrate is tilted, which
leads to variations of cladding width, cladding height, and especially peak point shifting value. These parameters
will be dependent on the integrated effect of gravity and the laser beam power distribution. A set of experiments
is conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. This study illustrates that the variation of
cladding width and height with the tilt angle can be accurately calculated by the predictive model, and that the
peak point shifting value is roughly smaller than 5% of cladding width when the tilt angle is less than 30°. These
findings show that trajectory planning of multi-axis laser cladding can be optimized using an acceptable range of
tilt angle between the laser nozzle and substrate.

1. Introduction
Laser cladding, also known as laser metal deposition (LMD), is a
joining process used for adding a cladding material to the surface of
another base material [1]. A laser cladding process uses a laser beam to
fuse enhanced materials by creating a metallurgical bond between the
cladding and the base materials, as shown in Fig. 1. In the laser clad-
ding process, the cladding material (in either a powder or a wire form)
is fed by a laser nozzle onto a melt pool, which is created by the laser
beam [2]. Laser cladding has been increasingly adopted in the repair
and remanufacturing of critical and high-value components such as
turbine blades, gears, crankshafts, and centrifuge hubs [3–5]. Com-
paring to traditional cladding processes such as thermal spray and
plasma coating [6], laser cladding offers unique benefits such as high
solidification rates, full metallurgical bond, small heat-affected zone,
low porosity, and very low dilution [7,8].
Although laser cladding has many advantages, there are some lim-
itations. For example, it is difficult to control the metallurgical quality
of cladding layers, and surface cracks and internal pores can be
common. Moreover, the composition and structure of the cladding layer
are not uniform over the entire surface [9,10]. Some of the dominant
factors affecting the quality of laser cladding include laser power,
powder feed rate, nozzle tilt angle, and scan speed [11,12]. The mi-
crostructure and mechanical properties of cladding layers also vary
with the alloy composition and cladding path [13–15]. Therefore, it’s
important to build a robust model of single bead shape to generate
referential boundary conditions for overlapping coating. Furthermore, a
multi-axis laser cladding robot is often used to repair large-scale,
complex parts or interior components [16,17]. Considering the reach-
ability of a nozzle, a tilt angle always exists between the surface normal
vector and the laser beam axis. This brings uncertainties to path plan-
ning and machining simulation of laser cladding.
By conducting experiments in a facility housing the robot arm and
rotary platform, this paper focuses on investigating the effects of tilt
angle between a laser nozzle and a substrate on bead morphology. A
predictive model was developed to illustrate how a substrate with an

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jingbinhao@cumt.edu.cn (J. Hao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmapro.2019.04.025
Received 6 October 2018; Received in revised form 26 February 2019; Accepted 22 April 2019
Available online 27 April 2019
1526-6125/ © 2019 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Hao, et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the laser cladding process.
inclined angle (gravity effect) impacts the variation tendency of bead
shape parameters (width w, height h, and peak shifting value Δ ). In
addition, a laser nozzle tilt angle (beam power distribution) also has a
significant impact on bead shapes. The experimental results demon-
strate the accuracy of the predictive model, and show that the cladding
bead and overlapping surface quality will not be influenced within a
certain range of tilt angle, which exists between orientations of the laser
nozzle and substrate. Our research will provide some theoretical basis
for laser nozzle posture optimization in trajectory planning of multi-
axis laser cladding.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 re-
views the related work on modelling and prediction of bead shape in
the laser cladding process. Section 3 introduces four postures between
the laser nozzle and the substrate, and presents a mathematical pre-
dictive model of bead shapes for three tilting postures. Section 4 pre-
sents an experimental setup of the laser remanufacturing system and
experimental data acquired from the materials microscope. Section 5
discusses experimental results, demonstrates the accuracy of the pre-
dictive model, and analyses the reason for the predictive model de-
viation of peak point shifting. Section 6 provides conclusions that in-
clude a discussion of research contributions and future work.
2. Related work
Han and Liou [18] developed a mathematical model and related
numerical methods to simulate the process of laser material interaction
for different laser beam modes. This model incorporated several phy-
sical phenomena, including melting, solidification, vaporization, and
evolution. Fathi et al. [19] presents a mathematical model of laser
powder deposition to predict temperature field, and studied the effect
of laser beam and bead height on the melt pool depth and dilution.
Akkas et al. [20] studied the relation between bead shape geometry and
laser deposition parameters by applying the method of Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) and neuro-fuzzy system. The predicted and resulting
bead geometry values were within the 95th percentile accuracy. Saqib
et al. [21] used design of experiment (DOE) and response surface
method (RSM) to design an experiment, which confirmed the impact of
five parameters (laser power, scan speed, and powder flow rate et al.)
on the bead height, width, and penetration. Goodarzi et al. [22] applied
the DOE approach and observed that laser power and powder feed rate
were the main factors determining melted area. Furthermore, they es-
tablished a relationship between main laser cladding process variables
and substrate melt shape. Based on experimental results of two metal
components, Barroi et al. [23] illustrated the influence of the laser
power of a diode laser in the range of 500 W to 1000 W on the shapes of
single tracks in scanner-based laser wire cladding, and discusses this
influence in respect to the heat dissipation in the substrate material.
Ding et al. [24] built up a bead model prediction method, and then
introduced the medial axis transformation algorithm for path planning.
Urbanic et al. [25] conducted single-track experiments through the
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322
DOE method, then set up a general predictive model of single bead
shape by analysis of variance and generalized reduced gradient.
Moreover, they identified the bead shape through data clustering.
There are also multiple analytical and numerical models for the
laser deposition process via applying finite element approach with
element death-and-birth function in commercial software. Toyserkani
et al. [26] introduced a 3-D transient finite element model of laser
cladding by powder injection to investigate the effects of laser pulse
shaping on the process, which is simulated for different laser pulse
frequencies and energies. Qian et al. [27] established a finite element
model to predict the temperature history of direct laser fabricated
Ti–6Al–4 V thin wall samples, and analyzed the effects of laser power
and the effect of location within a sample on its temperature history.
Wang et al. [28] developed a 3-D finite element model to predict the
temperature distribution and phase transformation in deposited stain-
less steel 410during the Laser Engineered Net Shaping rapid fabrication
process. Peyre et al. [29] presented a finite element model to predict the
shapes of manufactured structures and thermal loadings induced by the
direct metal deposition process. Their thermal model can provide an
adequate representation of temperatures near the melt-pool, and can
reproduce with the thermal cycles and melt-pool dimensions with high
accuracy. Fallah et al. [30] developed a transient finite element ap-
proach to simulate the temporal evolution of the melt-pool morphology
and dimensions during laser powder deposition without assuming any
of the geometrical characteristics. Michalrie [31] used finite element
techniques for modelling metal deposition heat transfer analyses of
additive manufacturing. He also proposed a new hybrid quiet inactive
metal deposition method to accelerate computer run times. Liu et al.
[32] used finite element techniques to simulate multi-layer coating on
the cast iron, and investigated the microstructural evolution with em-
phasis on the variation of the bonding zone. Although the finite element
method is widely used in modelling deposition processes through se-
quential solutions, the process is interdependent, which needs a fully
coupled solution.
As mentioned above, although there is has been substantial research
into bead shape modelling and prediction, a premise of most of these
studies is that the laser nozzle is vertical and the substrate is horizontal
(i.e. laser beam axis coincides with surface normal vector). Ramiro et al.
[33] studied the cladding efficiency of different LMD nozzles by using a
hybrid multi-process machine. They found that the continuous coaxial
nozzle of 1 mm is the best option for coating with the laser head
working vertically in terms of efficiency, productivity and mass de-
position rate without loss hardness and quality of the coating. Liu et al.
[34] investigated the relationship between the process parameters and
geometrical characteristics of cladding layer, which is deposited by
high power diode laser with rectangle beam spot. They adopted a cir-
cular arc to describe the geometry profile of the cross-section of the
single track cladding. Paul et al. [35] focused on laser manufacturing in
vertical surface configuration and indicated that gravity flow brought
peak point shifting of the deposited track. They developed an analytical
model incorporating gravity, which was validated by experiment. Zhu
et al. [36] investigated the influences of the substrate-inclined angle on
the section size of cladding layers, and analyzed the forces applied to
the molten pool. They changed the substrate-inclined angles from 0° to
150° with perpendicular laser nozzle. Wang et al. [37] proposed a
method of trajectory planning of laser cladding remanufacturing on
NURBS (non-uniform rational B-splines) surface. This method kept the
laser gun head and the cladding surface normal vector on the same line.
However, this study did not consider laser beam inclining situations
and relative orientation of the laser nozzle and the substrate.
3. Analytical model of bead morphology
As previously studied, laser beam moves with a known heat profile
(Gaussian source) to melt and solidify a layer on a substrate. When the
laser beam moves on the substrate surface, the melt pool is being
J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Considering the reachability of a nozzle, an angle always exists

between the surface normal vector and the laser beam axis. In addition
to the vertical posture, there are three tilting postures: 1) tilted nozzle
relative to a horizontal substrate, which is abbreviated to Nozzle Tilting
(Fig. 3(b)); 2) substrate is tilting with perpendicular laser nozzle, which
is abbreviated to Both Tilting (Fig. 3(c)); 3) vertical nozzle relative to an
inclined substrate, which is abbreviated to Substrate Tilting (Fig. 3(d)).

3.1. Tilted nozzle relative to a horizontal substrate

In the case of nozzle tilting, the substrate remains horizontal, while

the laser nozzle is tilted with a small angle between the laser beam axis
and Z-axis direction (Fig. 4 (a)). If the defocusing distance of the laser
beam is kept constant, the contour of the cladding bead will change
(Fig. 4 (b)). According to the sine function formula, the laser spot
diameter on the tilting substrate d1 will increase with the increase of the
tilt angle θ . The specific derivation is as follows:
π β
d1 sin (π − θ − α ) = d 0 sin (π − α ), as α = + , so
2 2

Fig. 2. Schematic of melt pool surface.

cos (β /2) cos (β /2)
d1 = d 0 = εθ d 0, (εθ = )
cos (β /2 + θ) cos (β /2 + θ) (4)

formed in the irradiated area. The boundary of melt pool can be ap- The coefficient εθ > 1. Since d 0 and β are fixed, the laser spot dia-
proximately described as two semi-ellipses dimensioned by L1, L2 meter on the tilting substrate d1 is larger than the normal laser spot
(Fig. 2). Meanwhile, the powder streams melt into beads over the melt diameter d 0 . According to the forming rule of laser cladding, the molten
pool, and then solidify into the cladding layer after the laser beam pool becomes larger with the increase of effective spot diameter. If the
moves away. powder feeding is sufficient and stable, the cross-sectional width of the
Generally, the laser nozzle remains perpendicular to the substrate in cladding bead becomes large after rapid solidification. However, the
the process of laser cladding (the vertical posture, as shown in cross-sectional width is not the same as the laser spot diameter d1.
Fig. 3(a)). The maximum height of bead shape is written by: Because the distribution of the laser beam power changes on the sub-
strate after the laser beam is tilted, the energy density of the OA side
ηc f
hmax = tends to increase in Fig. 5(a), and the effective spot size is proportional
ρL d1 v (1) to Eq. (4). On the other side, the calculated spot size on the substrate is
where ηc , f , ρL , d1, v respectively represent powder catchment effi- OB, but the effective distribution of laser beam power is the OC area, so
ciency, powder feed rate, density of liquid metal, diameter of laser the effective size of the molten pool should be the projection of OC–
beam, and laser travel speed. |OC| ∙cos θ .
It is assumed that the upper clad height value satisfies the parabolic Therefore, after the laser beam is tilted, the original spot diameter d1
equation in the x–z plane, the track height at each point (x, y) can be will be divided into two segments to form an effective spot size. The
deduced as: d 0/2 segment near the tilt direction will increase, and the increase
coefficient is defined as εθ ; the other side of d 0/2 will decrease, the
(x + L2 )2 ⎞ ⎛ x2 ⎞ increase coefficient is defined as cos θ , and thus the overall effective
h (x , y ) = hmax ⎛1 − 1−
spot diameter d1′ is:
⎜ ⎟⎜ ⎟
(L + L ) 2 w (y )2 ⎠
⎝ 1 2 ⎠⎝ (2)
d0 d ε + cosθ
The melt pool width at section x is obtained as: d1′ = ∙εθ + 0 ∙cosθ = εw d 0, εw = ( θ ).
2 2 2 (5)
x2
w (x ) = w0 ⎡
⎢sign (−x ) + 1− ∙sign (x ) ⎤
⎥
Since the cladding bead width is approximately equal to the effec-
⎣ (w0/2)2 ⎦ (3) tive spot diameter, the relationship between the cladding bead width w1
in the case of nozzle tilting and the cladding bead width w0 in the
where w0 refers to the cladding width at section x, and vertical case is w1 = εw w0 . In this case, εw is the width variation coef-
sign (x ) = {
1, x ≥ 0
0, x ≤ 0
. ficient of cladding beads.

Fig. 3. Four postures between a laser nozzle and a substrate.

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J. Hao, et al.
Fig. 4. Schematic of bead shape changes in the case of nozzle tilting.
Fig. 5. Predictive model of cladding bead in the case of nozzle tilting.
Similarly, due to the rotation of Gaussian energy profile, the height
of the cladding bead will have some changes. Taking peak point height
hmax for example, if powder feeding is enough, and though the laser
beam is inclining, the largest powder accumulation point should still be
located where the laser beam axis has the highest power. Since the
energy density at the axis increases by a multiple of εθ , the height of
powder accumulation increases along the axis of the laser beam. The
increase influence factor can also be considered as εθ , and the maximum
height of powder accumulation in the final axial direction is hmax ∙εθ . As
shown in Fig. 5(b), the cumulative height of powder in the z-axis
Fig. 6. Schematic of bead shape changes in the case of both tilting.
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322
direction can be determined. The position of the highest point is rotated
by an angle around the point O , and its projection in the z-axis direction
′
(height of the cladding bead) hmax is:
′
hmax = hmax ∙εθ ∙cosθ = εh ∙hmax , (set εh = εθ ∙cosθ) (6)
The peak shifting of the cladding bead in the X-direction is Δ1, which
is the projection of the powder accumulation along the axis of the laser
beam on the x-axis, can be calculated as:
Δ1 = hmax ∙εθ ∙sinθ = εΔ ∙hmax , (set εΔ = εθ ∙sinθ). (7)
Based on Eqs. (6) and (7), the cross-section of the cladding bead in
the case of nozzle tilting can be obtained by rotating all contour points
of the cladding bead in the vertical case by the angle θ around the point
O . According to the measurement data of the width and height of the
cladding bead, the corresponding three variation coefficients εw , εh , εΔ ,
are calculated, the cross-section of the single-pass cladding can be ob-
tained in the case of nozzle tilting. The two steps of cladding bead
change are as shown in Fig. 5.
3.2. Nozzle perpendicular to an inclined substrate
According to the effects of gravity, surface tension, and viscous
forces, the melted materials will shift along the slope during the laser
melt pool solidifying time in the case of both tilting. Fig. 6 shows the
schematics of bead shape variation from start time (t = 0 ) to end time
(t = d 0/ v ) of melt solidification. In the vertical surface (θ = 90°), liquid
metal will fall by the resultant force of gravity, while resisted by surface
tension and viscous forces. Based on the research of Paul et al., [30], the
J. Hao, et al.
expression of the relationship between gravity and viscous forces,
combined with temperature surface tension, can be expressed as:
z 2∙ρL gslop
uL U (z ) = − γ1 DTS z
2 (8)
where uL refers to kinematic viscosity, U (z ) refers to fluid flow velocity,
z refers to the height of the cladding bead, ρL refers to density of liquid
metal, gslop refers to component of gravity in z-axis direction, and γ1 and
DTS refer to surface tension and temperature on the top boundary of the
molten deposit.
The peak shifting of cladding bead Δ2 can be expressed as the
function of fluid flow velocity U (z ) concerned with cladding bead
height z and solidifying time (t = d 0/ v ).
d0
Δ2 = (z 2ρL gsinθ − 2γ1 DTS z )
4vuL (9)
Based on Eq. (9), the local shifting value of cladding bead border
(z = 0 ) is zero, which means that the overall shifting of cladding bead
will not happen in the case of both tilting. Additionally, the solidifying
time is reduced under the condition of higher scan speed, and the peak
shifting of cladding bead will shrink. If all the relevant parameters in
Eq. (9) can be obtained, the top boundary (i.e. shifting bead shape) can
be approximately obtained.
3.3. Vertical nozzle relative to an inclined substrate
For most of the Cartesian coordinate robots, the laser nozzle usually
has vertical downward posture. There may be the situation of a vertical
nozzle with substrate tilting in practical cladding process. Since this
situation is a combination of the above two situations, the cladding
bead shape of substrate tilting can be determined by the combined
influence of nozzle tilting and both tilting.
As shown in Fig. 7 (a), at time t = 0 , the cladding bead width in-
creases in the case of nozzle tilting. All contour points of the cladding
bead rotate by an angle θ to the upside direction of the tilting substrate.
The parameters of cross-section (d1′, hmax′
, Δ1) can be calculated by Eqs.
(5)–(7). When it comes to t = d 0/ v , the melting metal will slide to the
low side of the substrate due to the effect of gravity (Fig. 7 (b)). The
peak shifting of cladding bead Δ2 will be calculated by Eq. (9). Since
the laser nozzle is vertically downwards in posture, the tilt directions of
the laser nozzle and the substrate are opposite, therefore the final peak
shifting value is obtained as Δ3 = Δ2 − Δ1. In certain special condi-
tions, the tilt directions of the laser nozzle and the substrate may be the
same, and the final peak shifting value would be obtained by
Δ3 = Δ2 + Δ1.
Fig. 7. Schematic of bead shape changes in the case of substrate tilting.
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Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322
Fig. 8. Multi-axis laser cladding robot platform.
4. Experimental setup
In this study, a laser cladding machine (Zhongke Dagang Laser Co.,
Ltd.) is used to conduct a set of experiments (As shown in Fig. 8). The
system uses a coaxial nozzle to feed metal powders to the melt pool. The
motion control system of the machine contains a KUKA's 6-DOF robotic
arm and a 2-DOF rotating platform. The machine uses an IPG high
power laser (YLS-4000 model) with a rated output power of 4KW, and a
modulation frequency (Max) of 5KHZ. The experiment uses a DPSF-2
type powder feeder, which adopts coaxial powder feeding. The nozzle
has a diameter of 1.5 mm. The carrier gas feeds the powder (Beijing
Airlines Group 625), and the powder feeding gas is argon gas.
In the experiment, Fe-base powders are deposited on a substrate
made of Q235 steel. The carbon steel was selected as the substrate with
a dimension of 100 mm x 50 mm x 10 mm. The nominal chemical
composition of Fe-base powder is listed in Table 1. The substrate (steel
plate) is clapped on the rotating platform, while the laser nozzle is
equipped on the multi-axis robot arm. Therefore, both types of tilt
angles were easily adjusted.
Because the experiment is designed to investigate how tilt angle
between laser nozzle and substrate affects bead morphology, it is not
necessary to consider all the parameters of the laser cladding process.
Table 2 shows the design of the experiments. The experiments are
conducted using different tilt angles and powder feed rates, while
keeping the other parameters constant (laser power is 1900 W and scan
speed is 5 mm/min). To ensure the stability of the experiments, the
defocus amount of the laser beam must be kept constant. In addition, it
is necessary to clad multiple tracks for each parameter set, so we have
done the same experiment on three substrates (1#, 2#, and 3#). A
uniform track is then chosen to prepare samples. By EDM cutting,
mounting, polishing, and etching, the cross-sectional images of the
J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Table 1
Chemical compositions (wt% ) of the powder.
elements

C Cr Si Fe Mo Ni Mn

JG-2 0.05-0.09 16.0-19.0 0.5-1.1 Bal 2.0-3.0 22-30 0.5-1.0

Table 2
Design of experiments.
Set Tilt angle Powder Feed Rate
(degree°) (g/min)

1 0 15
2 0 20
3 0 25
4 10 15
5 10 20 Fig. 10. Single-track clad of substrate tilting.
6 10 25
7 20 15
8 20 20 cladding tracks from the experimental results.
9 20 25
10 30 15
5.1. Titled nozzle relative to a horizontal substrate
11 30 20
12 30 25
13 40 15 In the first case, the impact of laser beam power and powder feed
14 40 20 rate on cladding width and height is first analyzed. While other para-
15 40 25 meters are kept constant, cladding height is gradually increasing with
powder feed rate increasing as long as the laser beam power is suffi-
cient. Concurrently with this process, cladding width is being reduced
cladding beads are obtained with the upright materials microscope
(Fig. 12).
(LEICA DM4 M). These images are then imported into AutoCAD to
The impact of the nozzle tilt angle on cladding width and height is
measure and compare bead shapes. Finally, the parameters of bead
analyzed. It is apparent that the trend of cladding width w closely
shape (w, h, Δ ) are obtained according to measuring date.
follows the tilt angle θ , as seen in Fig. 13. When θ is going up, w is also
increasing. The reason for this phenomenon is that when laser nozzle
tilts, the actual spot size (i.e. diameters of upper melt pool) on the
5. Results and discussions
substrate becomes bigger. Consequently, the area where the powder is
melted and re-solidified has been enlarged, so the width of the cladding
Fig. 9 shows the cross-section of a single track in the vertical case.
bead increases. The predictive and experimental values are compared in
The cladding bead is substantially axisymmetric in this traditional case,
Fig. 13. To avoid initial error, the common cladding situation (θ = 0 )
and the centreline of the width passes through the peak point. However,
was directly chosen as the basic data to verify the prediction of Eq. (5).
when the relative posture of the laser beam and the substrate is not
Along with nozzle tilting, the distribution of powder accumulated
perpendicular, the most obvious change is the peak point offset. As
points has also been influenced, but not significantly. As shown in
shown in Fig. 10, the cross-section of cladding bead has a significant
Fig. 14, the bead height h will slightly increase while the peak point will
shifting Δ3 between the peak point and the width center line in the case
deviate towards the direction of the laser beam tilt. The predictive and
of substrate tilting.
experimental values of the cladding height are compared at three tilt
Based on the sampling-drawing-measuring method, three para-
angles ranging from 10°to 30°, as illustrated in Fig. 14(b)-(d). The
meters of bead shape (w, h, Δ ) are qualitatively obtained, and then the
predictive value is close to the experimental value at each tilt angle,
proposed predictive model is verified and analyzed based on the mea-
which indicates that the theoretical calculation error of cladding height
sured contour parameters. Fig. 11 shows the cross-section of several
in Eq. (6) is small.
As shown in Fig. 15 (a), the experimental value of peak point
shifting increases as the tilt angle θ increases. However, there is a large
deviation between the experimental value and the predictive value in
Eq. (7). In Fig. 15 (b), when the powder feeding rate is 15 g/min, the
prediction error is small. However, when the powder feeding rate in-
creases, the deviation between the experimental value and the pre-
dictive value also increases (as shown in Fig. 15 (c) and (d)). It is
possible that surface tension and interfacial viscous shearing force have
a great influence on the final forming of the cladding bead. These
factors should be considered in subsequent research to obtain accurate
theoretical prediction results.

5.2. Nozzle perpendicular to an inclined substrate

In the second case, the impact of the effect of gravity (i.e. increasing
tilt angle of a substrate) on cladding width, cladding height, and peak
point shifting is analyzed. Fig. 16 shows that cladding width and height
Fig. 9. Single-track clad of nozzle tilting. remain approximately constant except for shift value Δ2 . Although the

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J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Fig. 11. Cross-section of clad beads.

Fig. 12. Effect of powder feed rate on cladding width and height.

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J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Fig. 13. Predictive and experimental values of cladding width in the case of nozzle tilting.

Fig. 14. Predictive and experimental values of cladding height in the case of nozzle tilting.

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J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Fig. 15. Predictive and experimental values of peak point shifting in the case of nozzle tilting.

peak point is most affected by gravity during the solidification process, able to impact the melt pool displacement, similarly to the time d 0/ v in
it will shift along the direction parallel to the substrate, and its final Eq. (9).
powder accumulation in the Z-direction will not change. It is indicated To demonstrate this assertion, the impact factor of the powder feed
that solidifying time is a critical factor for the level at which tilt angle is rate is substituted by the scan speed. The scan speed was set at three

Fig. 16. Experimental result of bead shape parameters in the case of both tilting.

319
J. Hao, et al.
Fig. 17. Predictive and experimental values of cladding width in the case of substrate tilting.
levels, with a high level of 6 mm/s and a low level of 4 mm/s. With the
same tilt angle, the peak point shifting will gradually decrease with the
increase of scan speed (Fig. 16 (d)), which is consistent with the pre-
dictive value in Eq. (9). The reason for this is that the component of
gravity in the direction of the substrate slope is rising from zero to g due
to the increase of tilt angle (generally less than 90°). The flow velocity
of melt pool increases as well. The peak point shifting value Δ2 is also
related to the cladding height. With the same tilt angle, the peak point
shifting value will increase with the increase of the cladding height.
5.3. Vertical nozzle relative to an inclined substrate
The third case could be regarded as a superposition of the previous
two cases. Firstly, when the laser spot is irradiated to the substrate
(t = 0), the contour parameters of cladding bead will change similarly
to the case of nozzle tilting. Then, during the solidifying time (t = d 0/ v ),
the shape of the cladding bead will be affected by gravity, similarly to
the case of both tilting.
According to previous experimental verification, the height and
width of the cladding bead will be influenced only in the case of nozzle
tilting. The peak point shifting will be influenced in both cases, how-
ever. As shown in Fig. 17, the width of the cladding bead increases with
the increase of the tilt angle, which is the same as the result of nozzle
tilting. Therefore, the theoretical value also adopts the calculation re-
sult of Eq. (5) in the case of laser tilting. The comparison between the
predictive value and the experimental value of the cladding height is
shown in Fig. 17(b)-(d). The theoretical calculation error of cladding
width in Eq. (5) is small.
Similarly, the height of the cladding bead increases with the in-
crease of the tilt angle, which is the same as the result of nozzle tilting.
Therefore, the theoretical value also adopts the calculation result of Eq.
(6). The comparison between the predictive value and the experimental
320
Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322
value of the cladding height is shown in Fig. 18, which indicates that
the prediction results are reliable.
Fig. 19 (a) shows that under the three feeding rates, as the angle of
inclination increases, the shifting value of the peak point is expanding
in the direction of the lower slant plate due to the effect of gravity.
However, the effect of gravity is opposite to the effect of the laser beam
tilting, thus the peak point shifting distance should be obtained by
Δ3 = Δ2 − Δ1. Fig. 19 (b) shows the comparison between the predictive
value and the experimental value of peak point shifting with the feeding
rate of 15 g/min. The deviation between the experimental value and the
predictive value is still obvious. Since the experimental value of is Δ1
generally lower than the predictive value (As shown in Fig. 15), it is
also reasonable that the experimental value of Δ3 is generally higher
than the predictive value. In the future, the effects of gravity, surface
tension, and viscous shear force on the formation of the molten layer
should be further studied to obtain a more accurate predictive model.
Based on the above experimental analysis, the cladding width,
cladding height, and peak point shifting are all influenced by the tilting
angle. If the tilting angle is less than 30°, the increase of cladding width
and height is relatively minor, and the peak point shifting value is
roughly smaller than 5% of the cladding width. Considering that the
cladding surface is usually multi-tracks overlapping, the minor error of
cladding bead can be eliminated using a reasonable overlap ratio. Thus,
the bead shape and overlapping surface quality will not be influenced
within a certain range of tilt angles, which exist between orientations of
the laser nozzle and substrate.
6. Conclusion
In this work, the effects of tilt angle between a laser nozzle and
substrate on bead morphology have been studied. Three tilting pos-
tures, including nozzle tilting, both tilting, and substrate titling, have
J. Hao, et al. Journal of Manufacturing Processes 43 (2019) 311–322

Fig. 18. Predictive and experimental values of cladding height in the case of substrate tilting.

Fig. 19. Predictive and experimental values of peak point shifting in the case of substrate tilting.

been investigated. The analytical model of bead morphology was de-
veloped to predict bead shapes under these conditions. Three para-
meters that measure the cladding bead, including width w , height h ,
and peak point offset Δ , were determined using the proposed model. A
set of experiments was conducted. The analytical model was demon-
strated using the experimental data. Compared with the experimental
values, the predictive values for the width and height of the cladding
bead are fairly reliable. The deviation between the predictive and ex-
perimental values of cladding width and cladding height is less than
3%. It turns out that the predictive values for peak point shifting are not
as accurate, and that the deviation between the experimental value and
the predictive value increases along with the powder feeding rate in-
creasing. Some other factors, such as surface tension and interfacial
viscous shearing force, may have certain influences on the final forming
of the cladding bead.
Based on the predictive model and experimental results, this study
illustrates that the variation of cladding width and height with the
tilting angle can be accurately calculated by the predictive model, and
that the peak point shifting value is roughly smaller than 5% of clad-
ding width when the tilting angle is less than 30°. This minor error can
be eliminated using a reasonable overlap ratio. Within an acceptable
range of tilt angle, the laser nozzle can be non-coaxial with the normal
vector of the cladding surface in real time. Therefore, the variation
range of laser nozzle posture provides the possibility for path optimi-
zation of the robot arm. This study provides a certain theoretical and
practical basis for the laser nozzle posture optimization in laser clad-
ding path planning of a multi-axis robot arm.
In the future, we will develop a predictive model of the laser clad-
ding process by taking into account more factors such as surface tension
and shear forces associated with liquid metal forming. In addition, our

321
J. Hao, et al.
future work will be focused on investigating the effect of various pro-
cess parameters on the microstructure, fracture toughness, and hard-
ness of the components built by laser cladding.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51305443, 51475459), Natural Science
Foundation of Jiangsu Province (bk20130184, bk20160258), State
Scholarship Fund of the China Scholarship Council (201706425017),
Science and Technology Planning Project of Xuzhou City (KC18073),
and A Project Funded by Priority Academic Program Development of
Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD). The authors would also
like to thank Mr. Jason Benoit for his proofreading of this paper.
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