Surface alloying of silicon into aluminum substrate

Abstract

Aluminum alloys that are easily castable tend to have lower silicon content and hence lower wear resistance. The use of laser surface alloying to improve the surface wear resistance of 319 and 320 aluminum alloys was examined. A silicon layer was painted onto the surface to be treated. A high power pulsed Nd:YAG laser with fiberoptic beam delivery was used to carry out the laser surface treatment to enhance the silicon content. Process parameters were varied to minimize the surface roughness from overlap of the laser beam treatment. The surface-alloyed layer was characterized and the silicon content was determined.