Effect of ultrasonic parameters on microstructure and mechanical properties of non-contact ultrasonic-assisted laser metal deposition of Fe-based powder

In order to study the effects of ultrasonic parameters on the microstructure and mechanical properties of non-contact ultrasonic assisted laser deposition, Fe-based powder was deposited on 42CrMoA steels with different ultrasonic amplitudes (UA) and excitation distances (d). The results show that the ultrasonic-assisted laser metal deposition (LMD) of Fe-based powder increases depth and width of the deposition layers. Due to the cavitation effect of ultrasonic, it effectively refines the grains and promotes the columnar to equiaxed transition (CET) of grains at the interface. When d = 50 mm, the grain size greater than 8 μm accounts for only 3.1 %, but the ultrasonic vibrations haven’t changed the phase type of the structures. With ultrasonic-assisted, the cracks generated in the deposition layer can be effectively inhibited and the mechanical properties can be improved. When d = 80 mm and UA = 30 μm, the average microhardness of the deposition layer reaches 772.9 HV, which is 95.8 HV higher than that without ultrasonic-assisted deposition. When UA = 40 μm, the tensile strength is 1237.9 MPa, which is increased by 26.8 % compared to without ultrasonic-assisted deposition. Compared to without ultrasonic-assisted, the friction coefficient of deposition layers is significantly decreased by 25.5 % with the application of UA = 30 μm.