The Wear Behavior of the Laser Cladded Ti-Al-Si Composite Coatings on Ti-6Al-4V Alloy with Additional TiC

In this study, the Ti-Al-Si + xTiC (x = 0, 2, 6, 10 wt.%) composite coatings, each with a different content of TiC were fabricated on a Ti-6Al-4V alloy by laser surface cladding. The microstructure of the prepared coatings was analyzed by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microhardness and the wear resistance of these coatings were also evaluated. The results show that α-Ti, Ti(3)Al, Ti(5)Si(3), TiAl(3), TiAl, Ti(3)AlC(2) and TiC particles can be found in the composites. The microstructure can obviously be refined by increasing the content of TiC particles, while the microhardness increases and the coefficient of friction decreases. The Ti-Al-Si-6TiC composite shows the best wear resistance, owing to its relatively fine microstructure and high content of TiC particles. The microhardness of this coating is 5.3 times that of the substrate, while the wear rate is only 0.43 times. However, when the content of TiC was up to 10 wt.%, the original TiC could not be dissolved completely during the laser cladding process, leading to formation of cracks on the coatings.