Joining dissimilar metal of Ti and CoCrMo using directed energy deposition

•The present study focuses on laser cladding of pure titanium on a cocrmo alloy using directed energy deposition.•The excess of laser energy caused chemical inhomogeneity and partially melted powders, while the deficiency laser energy resulted in lack of fusion.•Cladding layers showing dilution rates of more than 5% contained cracks due to the formation of brittle intermetallic phase Co2Ti.•Neither crack nor partially melted powder was observed for a powder feed rate of 3 g/min and a laser power of 225–300 W, which comprised pure α-Ti and a uniform coti interface with Co2Ti islands.•Crack-free of joining Ti-cocrmo can be explained by thermal and mechanical behaviors of the evolved phases during process.