Laser Assisted High Entropy Alloy Coating on Low Carbon Steel

Coatings with high entropy alloys of the AlCoCrFeNiV system were obtained by selective laser melting on low carbon steel substrates. The effect of the variation of the Fe and V contents as well as the laser processing parameters in the development of the coating were evaluated. The coatings were obtained from the simple powder mixtures of the high purity elemental components in a planetary ball mill. The coatings were obtained by using CO2 laser with a power of 100 W, diameter of 0.16 mm, and scan speed varying from 3 to 12 mm/s. Phase constituents, microstructure and hardness were investigated by XRD, SEM, and microhardness tester, respectively. Wear resistance measurements were carried out by the micro-abrasion method using ball-cratering tests. The coatings presented good adhesion to the substrate and high hardness, of the order of 480 to 650 HV. Most homogeneous coating with nominal composition was obtained by using the higher scan speed, 12 mm/s. Vanadium addition increased hardness and gave rise to a high entropy alloy coating composed by BCC solid solutions. Ball cratering tests conducted on HEA layer showing improvement of material wear resistance, when compared to base substrate, decreasing up to 88% its wear rate, from 1.91x10-6 mm3/Nmm to 0.23x10-6 mm3/Nmm.