The Effects of Travel Speed of Tungsten Inert Gas Cladding of Tungsten Carbide and Nickel Composites on the Microstructure of Stainless Steel

The scientific and industrial communities now consider surface modification of steel-based alloys to be essential. One effective method of altering these alloys' surfaces is tungsten inert gas (TIG) cladding. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the surface characteristics of austenitic stainless steel substrates are affected by TIG-deposited composite coatings made of tungsten carbide and nickel (WC-Ni). The study also intends to investigate the influence of the WC-Ni composite coatings' travel speed, and as a result, the heat input usually has significant effects on the microstructure. The coating layers were deposited at different travel speeds (67, 107, and 122 mm/min) using preplaced composite pastes that were 1 mm thick and contained the same weight percentage of WC (65). The clad layers showed a variety of microstructures in optical and scanning electron microscopy, primarily nickel solid solution dendrites with WC particles scattered throughout the matrix. The dendrites at various locations across the clad layers were few or dense, finer or coarser, equiaxial or columnar, densely or less densely branched, depending on the cooling rates and the density of WC in the composite. Energy dispersive spectroscopy demonstrated that the Fe element that was transferred from the substrate material to the molten pool was primarily concentrated in the matrix, not the dendrites, while the dendrite locations and orientations were amply demonstrated by the distribution of the W element.