Enhancement of Surface Hardness and Wear Resistance of Inconel 718 by Laser Material Deposition of Titanium and Inconel 718 Powders’ mixture

In spite of having numerous applications in aerospace, automobile, and marine industries, Inconel 718 suffers from low surface hardness and wear resistance. In the present study, a novel method based on laser additive deposition has been proposed to address this drawback. Crack-free clad layer with much increased hardness up to four times of the IN718 base material could be achieved with 50% Ti + 50% In718 and 75% Ti + 25% In718 mixed powders in combination with low cladding speed through careful control of the formation of hard intermetallics. Microhardness as high as 1000-1200 HV was obtained in the clad layers which is much higher than the hardness of 250 HV of as-received Inconel 718 substrate. Further, wear resistance also got improved by almost seven times compared to the base material. The present study could be used as a guideline to produce hard coatings with superlative wear resistance.