Effect of solid lubricant addition in coating produced by laser cladding process: A review

Abstract

This present review article discusses about the effect of solid lubricant additive in surface composite coating deposited by laser cladding and alloying process. Wear and friction is challenging problem in moving machinery parts subjected to rubbing action or sliding motion. Therefore to reduce the wear and friction of sliding machinery parts, coated layer is deposited on the surface of machine component to prevent from surface damage due to wear. Laser cladding and alloying is advanced manufacturing technology by which hard and wear resistant coating material is deposited on the surface of soft conventional materials by use of high power laser energy as heat source to provide good metallurgical adherence between coating and substrate materials. The coating materials generally used for enhancing the friction and wear resistance properties of conventional materials are advanced ceramics, advanced composites, nanomaterials and advanced alloys like high entropy alloys. When solid lubricants are added to these coating materials in limited amount then the friction and wear properties of developed surface improves. The solid lubricant additive in coating materials can reduce the friction coefficient and wear rate of materials. The solid lubricant materials acts as anti-friction and anti-wear agent in the coating materials. The most commonly used solid lubricants are h-BN, CaF2, MoS2, WS2, BaF2 and graphite. In this article the effect of these solid lubricant material on wear resistance and friction coefficient of coated surfaces produced by laser alloying and cladding techniques are described. The various engineering materials used for manufacturing of moving or sliding parts are ferrous materials, titanium alloys, aluminium alloys, magnesium alloys and copper alloys. In this article the coating deposited on these materials with solid lubricant additives by laser cladding and alloying process are reviewed. The problem arises during developing solid lubricant additive coating and its remedies are described.