spherical powder shape of tungsten carbides (WSC) should be more resistant to dissolution than angular shape.
Table 1 presents all the chemical analyses of test powders. The nominal grain sizes of all powders were 50–150 lm. Both WC
powders (WC and WSC; S = spherical) contained both WC and W2C and therefore were substoichiometric in carbon content.
Laser cladding process parameters were: spot size 6 mm, laser power 3.0 kW, travel speed 1000 mm/min and overlap 4 mm. Pow- der mass flow rates were varied to achieve right carbide volume fractions with minimum carbide dissolution and matrix dilution. The reason to different powder mass flow rates is in the differences of specific weight of the different powder materials.