Microstructure and properties of in situ synthesized Fe-Al coating by laser cladding

To improve the hardness and wear resistance of an aluminum alloy, Fe-Al intermetallic coatings are synthesized in situ on the surface of aluminum alloys by laser cladding. An x-ray diffractometer (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope are used to characterize the phase and microstructure of the coating. The corrosion resistance, wear resistance, and hardness of the coating were measured by an electrochemical workstation, a reciprocating friction and wear tester, and a Vickers hardness tester, respectively. There are no pores but some microcracks in the coating. The coating structure is composed of a dendrite crystal, a columnar crystal, and an equiaxed crystal. The XRD results show that the Fe-Al coating is mainly composed of body-centered cubic solid solution, FeAl phase, and Fe3Al phase. At the same time, the average hardness of the coating reaches 601.54 Hv(0.2), which is approximately 5.9 times that of the substrate (101.8 Hv(0.2)). Compared with the substrate, the self-corrosion voltage of the coating in 3.5% NaCl solution increased by 0.41 V, the self-corrosion current reaches 1.65 x 10(-5) A, and the protection rate increased by 71%.