Development of a laser multi-layer cladding technology for damage mitigation of fuel spacers in Hanaro reactor

A laser multi-layer cladding technology was developed to mitigate the fretting wear dameges occurred at fuel spacers in Hanaro reactor. The detailed experimental procedures are as follows. 1) Analyses of fretting wear damages and fabrication process of fuel spacers 2) Development and analysis of spherical Al 6061 T-6 alloy powders for the laser cladding 3) Analysis of parameter effects on laser cladding process for clad bids, and optimization of laser cladding process 4) Analysis on the changes of cladding layers due to overlapping factor change 5) Microstructural observation and phase analysis 6) Characterization of materials properties (hardness wear tests) 7) Development of a vision system and revision of its related softwares 8) Manufacture of prototype fuel spacers. As a result, it was confirmed that the laser cladding technology could increased considerably the wear resistance of Al 6061 alloy which is the raw material of fuel spacers