Room temperature wear behavior of laser clad 316L+WC composite coating

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (A.M.) techniques as laser cladding (L.C.) are attracting increasing attention from both industries and researchers due to the versatility of this process among other factors. The very high cooling rates obtained during laser-based A.M. result in new strongly refined metallic microstructures and potentially enhanced mechanical properties. L.C. also opens the possibility to fabricate new composite materials, combining the benefits of composite effect and of microstructural refinement. The present thesis thus aims more particularly at characterizing the microstructure and wear behavior of composite stainless steel + tungsten cabides (WC) coatings, and to better understand the influence of the WC particles and of other microstructural features (as the products of reactions between the particles and the matrix.