Abstract
The aim of this paper was to increase the wear resistance of the 304 stainless steel alloy without significant losses of its corrosion resistance. The YAG fiber laser was used to clad it with TiC powder at a fixed processing power of 2800 W and travelling speeds of 4 mm/s, 8 mm/s, and 12 mm/s. The TiC powder with a particle sizes of 3-10 mu m were preplaced on a cleaned surface to form a layer of two different thicknesses: 1 mm and 2 mm. The shielding gas that used during and after laser cladding was argon with a flow rate of 151/min. Some of the TiC particles were melted and re-solidified as dendrites during the cladding processing. The amount of the dendritic TiC structure was increased by increasing of the travelling speed, and the cohesion of the cladding layer with the substrate was improved for the same reason. At lower travelling speed, cracks were appeared at both the interface and the heat affected zone. The TiC particles were clustered within the top portion of the cladding layer when the preplaced powder was 2 mm. The surface hardness and wear resistance were remarkably improved under all processing conditions, especially at higher travelling speeds. Moreover, the sample treated at a travelling speed of 12 mm/s showed better corrosion resistance than the stainless steel substrate. (C) 2015 PEI, University of Maribor. All rights reserved.