Laser Cladding Venture (LCV) is a spin-off company of the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO). The company was founded to transfer all the developed expertise in Laser Cladding and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) to the industry by delivering services.  The company applies Laser Cladding for the repair, coating or Additive Manufacturing of products. 
Laser Cladding or LMD is a coating or additive manufacturing process which uses a laser beam to melt metal material and deposit thin layers of a metal powder on a substrate. 

Coating parts with Laser Cladding is a perfect method to increase the wear and corrosion resistance of parts. A layer of metal (selected based on its purpose) is deposited with the Laser Cladding process. These  layers  are metallurgical bonded with the substrate ensuring a excelent connection between the coating and the substrate. This method enables customers to combine properties of a dedicated substrate (ductile, cost-efficient, etc.) with properties of a surface coating, such as high hardness, high corrosion resistance. 

Repairing of products is interesting to lower the cost and downtimes of products. High value parts which are damaged due to wear, an error in manufacturing or due to other phenomena, are cost-efficiently repaired by adding material on the worn parts. This method transfers scrap parts back into the high value products as they were before, for a fraction of the cost.

Besides repair and coating this process is used for Additive Manufacturing also often reffered to as 3D printing. By repeatetly depositing thin layers of metal, a complex geometry can be manufactured. These complex parts can be designed  as lightweight structure taking into account extra integrated functionalities.  LMD has the capability to combine the best of both worlds (conventional machined parts and 3D printed parts) as it can build on a pre-machined piece and add 3D printed features on it so that a cost efficient product is developed.

Laser Cladding Venture nv

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