This project is aimed at solving existing problems of near-net-shape laser additive cladding, particularly instability of the cladding process and the challenges with programming the laser beam trajectory resulting in an elimination of extra cladding steps and speeding-up the machining phase. An optimization of the laser additive process will be carried out with a support of large-scale huge experimental programmes evaluating different properties of the laser clad components in detail. As a special parts of the work programme – a new method of protecting of the process against atmospheric effects will be developed; and – a new advanced method of on-line monitoring the deposited clad layers will be developed using laser triangulation machine vision technology. The aim will be to incorporate the vision system directly into the laser welding cladding process to measure each layer once deposited and provide some process and/or quality feedback to the cladding robot to react as required.