MoSi2 laser cladding—A new experimental procedure: double-sided injection of MoSi2 and ZrO2

In the last decade, development of low density advanced material systems for service at temperatures up to 1300 °C was one of the goals of many researches. This kind of material should mainly have moderate fracture toughness and should exhibit oxidation resistant behaviour at low and intermediate temperature. One of the most studied materials continues to be the intermetallic compound MoSi2. The molybdenum disilicide has been considered as an attractive candidate due to its melting point (2030 °C) and excellent oxidation resistance at high temperatures. The main problem associated with the MoSi2 layer synthesized using laser beam is the layer fragility. To avoid this fragility, unstabilized zirconia was employed in many cases. The paper presents the reasons, the set-up and the results of a new powder injection technique that uses two powders (MoSi2 and ZrO2) to produce the cladding using a Nd:YAG cw laser beam.