Two Laser Beam Modulation of Microstructure and Residual Stress Field in Cold Sprayed Al Alloy for Recovering Fatigue Performance

The cold spray (CS) process has been demonstrated to be an attractive additive manufacturing technology for the development of freeforms and coatings from temperature-sensitive materials. However, owing to the lower bonding strength and inhomogeneous residual stress field distribution, the fatigue performance of CS deposition cannot satisfy the requirements of numerous engineering conditions. This study proposes a novel and promising approach to recover the fatigue performance of CS-repaired Al alloy components using two laser beam modulations. In the treatment, a millisecond laser is used during the CS process to heat the impact location in situ, by which the bonding mode is transformed from mechanical bonding to metallurgical bonding, and massive Al2O3 reinforcements of nano/micro size are formed in the coating. Thus, the bonding strength is significantly improved. Next, another nanosecond laser is used as a post-treatment to act on the area except the repaired region of the sample, which optimised the residual stress distribution around the repaired zone by the mechanical effects of the laser-induced ultra-high shock waves. Through the combination of these two lasers, the fatigue performance of CS-repaired Al alloy samples is successfully restored to its original condition. This study demonstrates that this compound process of CS technology and laser processing presents a wide range of possibilities for further development of advanced repair technology.