Authors:
Dheeraj Gupta
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, Uttaranchal, India

C. P. Paul
Industrial CO2 Laser Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore-452012, Madhya Pradesh, India

Bhupendra K. Gandhi
S. R. Gupta
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee-247667, Uttaranchal, India

A. K. Nath
Industrial CO2 Laser Section, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore-452012, Madhya Pradesh, India


 

Wear resistance of austenitic steels is low and needs to be improved for applications in abrasive and erosive environments. In the present work, the powders of chromium carbide (Cr₃C₂), tungsten carbide (WC) and molybdenum (Mo) were laser cladded on AISI 304L steel. The laser processing parameters have been optimized to fabricate sound metallurgical clad surfaces with minimum dilution for all three powders. The fabricated laser clad samples have been subjected to abrasion and erosion wear tests. It is observed that the abrasion resistance is improved in the range of 2–8 times as compared to that of the substrate for the cladding with these three powders. Erosion resistance has also shown an improvement of the order of 1.5–2 times for cladding with Cr₃C₂ and WC powders, whereas it deteriorated for Mo powder cladding. Surface topography of worn surfaces has been studied to understand the wear mechanisms of the clad surfaces.