South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has signed a licensing agreement with a US-based partner on a laser cladding technology developed at CSIR.

CSIR signed the agreement with FW Gartner Thermal Spraying of Houston, a unit of Curtiss Wright Surface Technologies that provides thermal spray and cladding technologies.

“We aim to commercialize this unique technology, providing it to the broadest possible industrial audience,” said Michael Breitsameter, director of sales and marketing for FW Gartner Thermal Spraying.

The agreement follows the earlier development of a novel laser-based process for the cladding of steel processing rolls, a key component in steelmaking, CSIR said. The technology was tested and proven at ArcelorMittal’s Vanderbijlpark plant over the past five years.

“The application of laser cladding for the surfacing of continuous caster rolls has significantly exceeded all expectations where it had been applied so far,” said Pieter Venter, ArcelorMittal South Africa manager of materials engineering and authorized welding coordinator. “Alloying flexibility matched with caster-specific environmental conditions is a key strength of this technology, which has resulted in at least a twofold increase in caster roll life. While the improvement in MTBF [mean time between failures] of critical plant is always an important objective, the availability of laser technology to continuous casters is expected to play an important role for future improvement initiatives.”

For more information, visit: www.csir.co.za