Microstructure and Wear Behaviour of Laser Induced <i>In-Situ</i> Formation of TiB<sub>x</sub> and TiC Titanium Composite Coatings

Abstract

Two kinds of mixed powders:Ti-6Al-4V/B/C and Ti-6Al-4V/B4C which are pre-pasted on Ti-6Al-4V substrates separately were scanned by a 500W pulsed YAG laser to induce in situ formation of titanium composite coatings contained TiBx and TiC ceramic reinforced phases. The influences of laser processing parameters including Pulse Frequency (PF), Pulse Width (PW), Laser Power (P) and Scanning Speed (V) together with the powder proportions on the microstructure and properties of the coatings were investigated. Microstructure, phase components and micro-hardness of the coating were analyzed by OM, SEM, TEM, XRD and micro-hardness tester respectively. The optimized processing parameters of a single path laser scanned specimen in this case are as follows: PF: 15Hz, PW: 3ms, for the Ti-6Al-4V/B4C specimens the laser line energy ~12.5J/mm, for the Ti-6Al-4V/B/C specimens the laser line energy ~11J/mm. TiB and TiC ceramic were formed evenly reinforced in the matrix of Ti-6Al-4V with the morphology of needle, tiny dendrites and disperse spherical particles. The maximum micro-hardness of single-path layers is up to 750 Hv, which is over twice of that of the substrate (367Hv).The wear weight loss decreased nearly 3 times that of the substrate.