Microstructural characterization of Inconel 718 alloy after pulsed laser surface treatment at different powers

An annealed Inconel 718 alloy was surface-treated by pulsed laser at three different powers（100, 50 and 25 W）. Microstructural changes induced by the laser treatments were characterized by use of electron backscatter diffraction and electron channeling contrast imaging techniques. Results show that both annealing twins and strengthening precipitates profusely existing in the as-received specimen are dissolved at elevated temperatures during the laser irradiation. Meanwhile, in the melting zone（MZ）, densities of low angle boundaries（LABs） are greatly increased with a large number of Laves phases preferentially distributed along such LABs. For different specimens, widths and depths of their MZs are found to be gradually reduced with decreasing the laser powers. Orientation analyses reveal that the columnar grains in the MZ of the 100 W specimen could inherit orientations existing in the matrix while lower laser powers promote the formation of more nuclei with scattered orientations to grow to be granular grains in the MZ. Hardness tests reveal that the MZs of all laser-treated specimens are softer than the matrix probably due to both precipitate dissolution and grain coarsening.

Laser surface treatment-introduced gradient nanostructured TiZrHfTaNb refractory high-entropy alloy with significantly enhanced wear resistance

Heterogeneous gradient nanostructured metals have been shown to achieve the strength-ductility synergy, thus potentially possessing the enhanced tribological performance in comparison with their homogeneous nanograined counterparts. In this work, a facile laser surface remelting-based surface treatment technique is developed to fabricate a gradient nanostructured layer on a TiZrHfTaNb refractory highentropy alloy. The characterization of the microstructural evolution along the depth direction from the matrix to the topmost surface layer shows that the average grain size in the ~100 μm-thick gradient nanostructured layer is dramatically refined from the original ~200 μm to only ~8 nm in the top surface layer. The microhardness is therefore gradually increased from ~240 HV in matrix to ~650 HV in the topmost surface layer, approximately 2.7 times. Noticeably, the original coarse-grained single-phase bodycentered-cubic TiZrHfTaNb refractory high-entropy alloy is gradually decomposed into TiNb-rich bodycentered-cubic phase, TaNb-rich body-centered-cubic phase, ZrHf-rich hexagonal-close-packed phase and TiZr Hf-rich face-centered-cubic phase with gradient distribution in grain size along the depth direction during the gradient refinement process. As a result, the novel laser surface treatment-introduced gradient nanostructured TiZrHfTaNb refractory high-entropy alloy demonstrates the significantly improved wear resistance, with the wear rate reducing markedly by an order of magnitude, as compared with the as-cast one. The decomposed multi-phases and gradient nanostructures should account for the enhanced wear resistance. Our findings provide new insights into the refinement mechanisms of the laser-treated refractory high-entropy alloys and broaden their potential applications via heterogeneous gradient nanostructure engineering.

Microstructural Characterization of Pure Titanium Treated by Laser Surface Treatment Under Different Processing Parameters

Advanced characterization techniques are utilized to investigate the effect of laser surface treatment on microstructural evolution of pure titanium（Ti）.The results show that there are three distinctly different types of microstructure from surface to substrate in Ti samples,including phase transformation and solidification microstructure in zone I（melting zone）;insufficient recrystallization grains with residual a martensitic plates in zone II（heat-affected zone,HAZ）;fully recrystallization microstructure in zone III（base metal,BM）.The hardness evolution profiles under different laser treatment parameters are similar.The highest hardness in MZ is ascribed to α plate,while the lowest hardness value in HAZ is due to the insufficiently recrystallized grains.The metallurgical process on the laser-modified Ti samples is systematically discussed in this work.

Effects of the laser surface treatment on the mechanical properties of CuZr-based bulk metallic glasses

Surfaces of three types of CuZr-based bulk metallic glasses （BMGs） were modified by laser surface treatment （LST）, and the influence of the treatment on structure and mechanical properties of these alloys was investigated. The phase structure of as-cast and laser-treated samples was characterized by XRD and the morphology of the alloys after fracture was examined by SEM. The compressive plasticity of treated Cu47.sZr47.sAI5 and Cu46.sZr47.sAlsCo~ BMGs can be improved from 0.5% to 2.0% and from 1.2% to 5.7% respectively compared with the as-cast ones, while （Cu0.55Zr0.40Ala05）99Er~ BMG shows insignificant change of plasticity. The improvement in plasticity is attributed to induced crystallization of B2 CuZr phase in the treated sur- face zone of selected metallic glasses.

A Comparison of Laser Cladding Ni-based Coating on an Aluminium Alloy with CO_2 Laser and Nd: YAG Laser

In this paper, a plasma sprayed coating (Ni Cr B Si) on an Al Si alloy surface was melted by a CO 2 laser and a Nd:YAG laser respectively. The difference on the outline of the melted zone, chemical composition and hardness distribution of the laser melted zones were investigated. Experimental results showed that samples treated by the Nd:YAG laser have a better cladding tendency, more uniform chemical composition and microhardness distribution. Samples treated by the CO 2 laser have larger compositional segregation and poorer microhardness distribution.