PLASTIC FLOW INHOMOGENEITY OF BIMETAL PRODUCED VIA LASER CLADDING

This work studies plastic flow inhomogeneity of bars upon uniaxial tensile testing. The high-nitrogen Cr-MnNi austenitic stainless steel was chosen as the substrate material. Laser cladding was conducted using a Fe-BC alloy wire. Double-exposure speckle photography revealed that the degree of plastic flow inhomogeneity within microzones of the interface and the cladding layer were higher than those of the substrate, which was attributed to structural and chemical inhomogeneities of the hardened surface austenite layer after doping. Keywords: laser cladding, high-nitrogen austenitic steel, local strain, speckle photography.