Technological and scientific landscape of laser cladding process in 2007

In the last 30 years, public and private organizations involvement in laser cladding R&D activities is increasing. These activities are mainly conducted in universities, public research institutes and technical centres of private companies worldwide. This study shows a bibliometric analysis of the patents and scientific publications in the laser cladding field for the period ranging from 1985 to 2007. This seeks to identify the activity and trends in its environment for strategic purposes. All the laser cladding processes and all the substrates (steel, aluminium and superalloys) used for coating, repairing and 3D fabrication were taken into account. At first, the world patent production was analysed in terms of volume (580 patent families found since 1985), frequency and applications. Then, the same strategy was applied to the scientific publications for a total volume of 588 targeted papers. Using bibliometric techniques, an analysis and mapping of the information was performed to highlight the temporal, geographical and institutional aspects of R&D activities. The patented applications were also classified in order to identify opportunities. This study shows the evolution of the scientific and technological environments of the laser cladding technology and can help public or private organizations to generate new ideas, gain awareness of emerging trends and validate the relevance of projects.