10004433Formation of Super-hard Wear Resistant Coating using Energy Efficient Reactive Laser Additive Manufacturing Technique (REALM)ClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe REALM project will develop a new, sustainable manufacturing technology to produce hard-facings for downhole drilling tools. The proprietary technology uses a novel metal additive manufacturing process based on Directed Energy Deposition (DED) to form highly wear resistant hard-facing coatings in-situ, using elemental powders. The super-hard coating is characterised by a strong metallurgical bond showing a continuous metal-matrix and finely-dispersed carbide precipitates creating functional graded microstructure necessary for wear and erosion applications. This has overcome the drawback encountered when using commercial hard-facing tungsten carbide powders. The project is expected to deliver three innovations: 1. Automated, low-heat input manufacturing process to form functionally-graded hard-facings; high toughness at the coating-substrate interface and high hardness on the surface. 2. Reactive powder composition formulated using a wide variety of application-targeted material combinations. 3. Design freedom of hard-facings to optimise coating geometries for improved heat dissipation and performance. The innovative DED process will benefit the environment; the near-net shape process will lead to more efficient application of tungsten and cobalt thus minimising waste of these expensive at-risk commodities. Localised heating using a laser beam will save energy and greenhouse gases. In service, the downhole tool will exhibit higher performance and will lower energy consumption, whilst its higher longevity will reduce the demand for the primary production of "at-risk" metals.