Laser cladding of Fe-Cu based alloys on aluminum

For the improvement of a surface wear resistance of aluminum alloys, iron-based alloys were clad on the surface of an aluminum alloy by laser. By investigating the effect of CO2 and diode laser irradiation conditions on the formability of Fe-Cr-C clad layers, it was confirmed that the application of diode laser made it possible to obtain stable beads in low heat input compared with CO2 laser, which has been conventionally used for laser cladding. Besides, by optimizing the laser parameters, the dilution ratio of clad layers by Al substrate was minimized less than 10%. At the clad interface, the reaction layer consisting of Fe2Al5 and FeAl3 formed which caused cracks at the clad interface. Even by controlling laser conditions, this brittle layer formation could not suppressed. In this research, by using the immiscible Fe-Cu-Cr alloys as clad materials, Fe based clad layers were formed on Al substrate without any cracks at clad interface. By the effect of Marangoni motion of decomposed duplex liquid phases, Cu segregated between Al substrate and Fe based clad layers and suppressed the reaction between them.