Cladded valve seat, assembly, and methods for cladding such seat

Abstract

This disclosure provides a valve seat having cladded surfaces of high hardness in order to improve the service life of valve seats. The cladded surfaces may include various materials of favorable mechanical properties for mitigating failure mechanisms known for common valve seats (e.g., having a common base metal throughout). In one example, the cladded surfaces are created using an additive manufacturing process, such as laser metal deposition. The cladded surfaces offer advantages including metallurgical bonding, localized low heat input at the laser focus (thus enabling accurate control of temperature and mitigating undesirable heat treatment effects), ductility in middle layers for increasing impact resistance, variable cladding thickness (optionally exceeding 1 mm), increased hardness by material and fusing temperature selections, corrosion resistance, modification of mechanical properties of the same selected material, and allowing for sensor embedment.