Laser cladding is a relatively fast and precise metal deposition process that has been widely applied to deposit coatings to protect parts from wear and/or corrosion and to rebuild worn surfaces of expensive components such as jet engine turbine blade tips. Economic development of laser cladding process applications is impeded by lack of a capability to accurately predict the results of complex...

This paper summarizes the state of the art of direct metal laser-sintering (DMLS) in 2004, put into perspective by a review of its history from its roots in the 1970s, and discusses the trends going into the future. Since the 1970s, DMLS has evolved from an idea to a powerful commercial technology. The "family tree" of DMLS is explained with reference to related methods such as laser-cladding, ...

Characteristics of cladding modes in a photonic crystal fiber (PCF) are numerically analyzed using the plane wave expansion method. The presence of the outer silica ring in the PCF tends to push the optical fields of the cladding modes toward the rim of the PCF, which creates 'ring modes' whose fields are tightly confined in the outer ring. The dispersion of the cladding modes are determined ma...

For a fiber optical surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor a short part of its cladding should be removed to coat a thin layer of a metal. Usually this is problematic when an optical fiber with small core diameter is used. In this paper, a new method using µliter droplet of the HF acid for short fiber optical taper fabrication is reported. Using this method in a multi-mode optical fiber w...

The pressure and temperature histories on cladding inner and outer surfaces during of LBLOCA (Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident) are considered as boundary conditions for the structural analyses of three cladding materials. Since SiC (Silicon Carbide) has higher yield and ultimate strengths than Zry-4 (Zircaloy-4) under the same primary stresses, SiC has higher primary safety margin than Zry...

This paper presents a motion planning approach for some basic part shapes that require 5-axis motion control in a LENS machine. The paper discusses an approach that allows a cladding layer to be deposited on a cylindrical or a semi-spherical part for re-build operations. For cylindrical parts, the deposited layer could take the form of a tube, a spiral, or stepped/tappered tube. The approach a...

This study presents a new mechanical tube cladding process named punch plastic deformation pipe cladding (PPDPC) based on local deformation by pressing a punch into the inner layer of the bimetal tube. To investigate the capability of the process, stainless steel tube (as the inner layer) is bonded to a carbon steel pipe (as the outer layer) to fabricate a bimetal pipe. Shear punch tests were u...

Characterisation of materials utilised for fuel cladding in nuclear reactors prior to service is integral in order to understand corrosion mechanisms which would take place in reactor. Zircaloy-4 is one such material of choice for nuclear fuel containment in Pressurised Water Reactors (PWRs). In particular, the metal-oxide interface has been a predominant focus of previous research, however, du...