The surface preparation before thermal spraying is a very important step for coating adhesion.Conventionally, degreasing and sandblasting are the two processes used for this surfacepretreatment, but the significant environmental impact of these conventional methods, theircosts and the possible modification of the properties of ductile materials lead to thedevelopment of new methods.The laser texturing process appears as an attractive and "clean" alternative to the conventionaltechnique. The method allows the surface preparation by ablation of material to create microcavities with a conical shape at the surface of the substrate. This texturing process willincrease the surface of contact between the substrate surface and the coating and lead to abetter mechanical anchoring of the coating. This process also allows the pretreatment of thesurface in a very short time without generating any waste.The approach followed in this study aims at characterizing the effects of each operatingparameter of the laser through a optimization protocol by experimental design strategy. Theapproach consists in assessing the level of modifications of surface substrate morphology aswell as the thermal effect induced by laser irradiation before evaluating the performance oftexturing by carrying out tenacity and interface adhesion tests. This approach aims atdetermining the operating conditions that provide the best adhesion of the coating and allowto reach adherence levels higher than those proposed by the conventional methods.Finally, analysis of the environmental impacts of the laser texturing pretraitment process isused to define its effect on the environment, health and ecosystem in comparison with theconventional methods.
