Laser cladding of Fe-based corrosion and wear-resistant alloy: Genetic design, microstructure, and properties

To meet the needs of laser cladding remanufacturing of key parts with both corrosion and wear resistance, the “material genetic” design method was used to deduce the composition of alloy powder with the microstructure of corrosion and wear-resistant key genetic phase from the target performance of materials. The research was conducted based on the typical phase theory of traditional Fe-based alloys such as martensitic and carbide wear-resistant microstructure and austenitic and Cr-rich passivated film corrosion-resistant microstructure. A material gene design database system based on the matching design of corrosion and wear-resistant phase key genes was successfully constructed by building an atheoretical prediction model and optimizing 10,935 sets of candidate Fe-based alloy compositions using computer algorithms and thermodynamic calculations. Finally, a new 50Cr12Ni3Mo2W6Co5BSiTi3CeO2 Fe-based alloy composition with both good wear resistance and high corrosion resistance was obtained by optimizing the design. The laser cladding formability of the designed alloy was verified and the correspondence between the key genetic microstructure and the corrosion and wear resistance was characterized with optimized process parameters. The results show that the laser cladding has good formability. The microstructure of the cladding consists of martensite and Cr23C6 carbides with the characteristics of wear-resistant key genes and austenite and Cr-rich passivation film with the characteristics of corrosion-resistant key genes. The new laser cladding of Fe-based alloy shows better corrosion and wears resistance than the 50Cr6Ni2Y alloy prepared by traditional composition design methods. We hope that this research can provide a new approach to the design of alloy compositions for laser cladding remanufacturing of Fe-based parts with both corrosion and wear resistance. •A new material gene design method of Fe-based alloy has been established.•The Fe-based alloy coating both has good corrosion and wear resistance properties.•The regulation mechanism of wear and corrosion resistant gene phase was clarified.