Abstract:
Laser Cladding has many advantages in the repair process o f naval vessel components, such as small thermal deformation and heat effect zone, little effect on the performances of basematerial, large repaired area, and high bond efficiency. The laser cladding repairing technique has been adopted by the U. S. Navy to repair underwater weapons quickly with low cost. Comparing with chromeplating technique, it will not pollute environment, and the cost is lower. This technique has been used on the U.S. Nava l submarines for repairing the corrosion and wear components to reduce cost, such as torpedo shell, torpedo engine cylinder body, vertical launch system(VLS) tubes, valve seat and stem, and propeller shafts, etc. This paper summarizes the current status and progress of the laser cladding technique for underwater weapons in the U. S. Navy to provide a reference for the research in this field.