Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535

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Surface & Coatings Technology

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Surface additive manufacturing of Ni-based superalloy/H13 steel system by T

laser depositing: Microstructure, microhardness and flexural response
⁎ ⁎
X. Lua, Y.F. Zhoua, , X.L. Xingb, B. Wanga, Q.X. Yangb, S.Y. Gaoa,
a
College of Mechanical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China
b
State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science & Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The Ni-based superalloy was deposited on the AISI H13 tool steel by laser depositing as a surface additive
Ni-based superalloy manufacturing method. The microstructure and microhardness were analysed from the top surface of deposited
Additive manufacturing layer to base metal. And the composition and constituent phases of Ni-based deposited layer were characterized.
Laser depositing Furthermore, considering the anisotropy along three orthogonal directions of the system (Ni-based superalloy/
Microstructure
H13 steel), the three-points bending test combined with fracture analysis was performed to evaluate the flexural
Microhardness
behavior of the system. The results suggest that laser deposited Ni-based superalloy layer has interdendritic
Flexural behavior
eutectic structures and the finely intermixed dendrites with directionality. Corresponding to the order of the
deposited layer, transition zone, heat affected zone and the base metal, the average microhardness decreases
gradually, which shows a gradient distribution. Moreover, the flexural response of the system is influenced by
the type of applied load which determines the stress state of the deposited layer. The flexural capacity of the
system can be maximized when the deposited layer is subjected to pure compressive stress. And the flexural
ductility of the system is weakened when the tensile stress exists in the deposited layer.

1. Introduction
In the die and mold manufacturing industry, due to combination of
high softening resistance and excellent toughness, the Cr-Mo-V hot-
working die steels (such as H13 steel) is widely used for making dies,
extrusion mandrels, plastic molds, cores, die holder blocks and hot-
working punches [1] Based on several related research reports [2–8]
and our previous investigation [9], hot-working dies are subjected to
severe static or cyclic thermal-mechanical loads during hot forming
processes, and local failures (wear, fracture and plastic deformation) at
prime locations are important reasons to drastically reduce the service
life of the dies. Thus, the local mechanical properties of hot-working
dies need to be improved at room and elevated temperature.
As a surface additive manufacturing method, laser depositing (or
cladding) is to melt the metallic materials (powders or wires) to form a
deposited layer on the surface of a substrate after solidification, which
can be used to modify the local properties of dies to further achieve the
goals of saving materials and improving performance. Because of a
desirable combination of high temperature strength and toughness,
oxidation and creep resistance, and high temperature stability [10–12],
the Ni-based superalloys have been widely applied for manufacturing
the key parts in the field of aerospace, energy and chemical industry,
etc. Such as the propulsion components of turbine engine blades, disks,
casings and liners; the nuclear power reactors and the turbine engines
for power generation [13]. Moreover, the Ni-based superalloys also can
be used in the field of the surface strengthening or remanufacturing
[14,15]. Prospectively, by laser depositing technology and using Ni-
based superalloys as deposited material, it is meaningful to deposit one
or more layers of Ni-based superalloys on the local working surfaces of
hot-working dies or other important parts, and to further improve the
service life of parts under high temperature and pressure load.
Generally, the mechanical properties (such as tensile strength, yield
strength and impact toughness, etc.) of laser deposited layer are eval-
uated by standard tensile test and Charpy impact test [16–19]. How-
ever, the ability of the material to resist flexural deformation (i.e.
flexural strength) is also one of the most important utility indicators of
many mechanical parts [20]. When a mechanical part fabricated or
repaired by additive manufacturing methods such as laser depositing is
put in actual service conditions, it also acts as a common part to bear
the flexural load in different directions. For instance, gas turbines work
under high temperature after a long time of serving, rotor, blade and
other parts will produce thermal bending, which can lead to gas tur-
bines failure [21]. Under the action of flexural mechanical loads, the
rollers, drill pipes, extrusion mandrels and hot-working punches will

⁎
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: yfzhou@ysu.edu.cn (Y.F. Zhou), gao58@ysu.edu.cn (S.Y. Gao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2018.01.071
Received 21 April 2017; Received in revised form 21 November 2017; Accepted 22 January 2018
0257-8972/ © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
X. Lu et al. Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535

base superalloy and H13 steel are less reported. In this paper, Ni-based
superalloy was deposited on H13 steel substrate by surface additive
manufacturing method of laser depositing. The microstructure and
microhardness were analysed from the top surface of deposited layer to
base metal. And the composition and constituent phases of Ni-based
deposited layer were characterized. The three-points bending test
combined with fracture analysis was carried out to estimate the flexural
strength and to evaluate the flexural behavior. The purpose of the
present research is to investigate the microstructure of Ni-based su-
peralloy/H13 steel system, and to evaluate its mechanical properties,
especially the flexural response in different loading directions.

2. Materials and experiment

2.1. Sample preparation by direct laser depositing

Ni-based superalloy spherical powder prepared by plasma rotation

electrode method was used as the deposition material. Via sieving
Fig. 1. SEM morphology of Ni-based superalloy powder. analysis, the particles size range is between 150–320 meshes. And Fig. 1
further presents the morphology and particle size of the powder. As-
Table 1 annealed AISI H13 tool steel plates (160 mm × 100 mm × 12 mm)
Chemical composition of Ni-based powder (wt%). were used as the base metal which was ground, polished and rinsed
with acetone to remove the surface oxides and contaminations. The
Elements C Ni Cr W Ti Nb Al Si Co Fe
chemical composition of Ni-based powder and H13 steel determined by
Composition 0.09 48.6 21.5 2.75 0.95 1.45 0.05 0.02 0.03 Bal. the fluorescence spectrum and sulfur carbon analysis was provided in
Tables 1 and 2. Before laser depositing, the powder was heated to
150 °C for 15 min to remove moisture, and the base metal was heated to
Table 2 300 °C to avoid cracking. As shown in Fig. 2, the sample preparation
Chemical composition of H13 steel (wt%). experiment was carried out by using a direct laser depositing (DLD)
system which mainly consists of a 5 kW transverse-flow continuous
Elements C Cr Si Mn Mo V Fe
wave CO2 laser, four axis numerical control (NC) workbench, con-
Composition 0.397 4.49 1.39 0.365 1.18 0.876 Bal. tinuous powder feeder, chiller (water-cooling unit) and coaxial powder
feeding nozzle. The multi-pass deposition path was one-way orthogonal
type (laser scanning pattern in Fig. 2), and the main process parameters
present plastic instability in the actual service. Therefore, the flexural were selected according to the factory's know-how and were listed as
strength and flexural behavior of system (Ni-based superalloy/H13 follows: laser power P = 1.7 kW, spot diameter d = 4 mm, scanning
steel) need to be evaluated through bending test methods. speed V = 300 mm/min, powder feeding rate S = 4.2 g/min, argon
At present, researches on the flexural performance of a system of Ni shielding gas flow 10 L/min, hatch spacing H = 2 mm.

Fig. 2. Schematic of direct laser depositing process.

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Fig. 3. The final prepared sample and three-point bending test schemes.
2.2. Microstructure, composition, constituent phases and microhardness
The prepared sample with a deposited layer was shown in Fig. 3(a),
the deposited thickness was more than 1 mm and its size was
120 mm × 80 mm. By using an electric spark machine, several me-
tallographic specimens were cut from the as-deposited sample and
prepared according to the standard method (ASTM E3-11). After that,
the 4% nitric acid alcohol solution and aqua regia were used to etch the
base metal material (H13) and the deposited layer (Ni-based super-
alloy), respectively. Then the microstructure and composition of as-
deposited specimens were examined by using an Axiovert 200 MATZ-
ESIS optical microscope and a Hitachi S3400 Cold Field Scanning
electron microscope (CFESEM), which was equipped with a Kevex-
Singma Level-4 energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS). The con-
stituent phases of the as-deposited layer were identified by X-ray dif-
fraction (XRD) analysis, which was performed using a Phillips Rayons-X
with Cu K-α (λ = 1.5418 Å) radiation source. Moreover, under a mi-
crohardness tester (FM-ARS 900 Vickers), the microhardness variation
across the section of specimens was measured on polished surface, at a
load of 500 gf (4.9 N) and a hold-time of 15 s, reference to ASTM E384.
2.3. Three-point bending test
In order to determine the ability of the system (Ni-based superalloy/
H13 steel) to undergo plastic flexural deformation. As depicted in
Fig. 3(a), three groups (G1, G2, G3) of specimens prepared for the
three-point bending test were machined from the as-deposited sample.
Besides, one control group (H13 specimens) was also prepared. In each
group, three specimens (Fig. 3(b)) were ground and sprayed with white
paint to reduce the interference of reflected light to video camera. The
arrangement for experiments is depicted schematically in Fig. 3(c). The
dimensions (h × w × L) of specimens were 5 mm × 5 mm × 100 mm
(the deposited layer thickness T1 was 0.8 mm after grinding). The
loading pin and supporting pins had diameters Ds (10 mm). And the
bending span (Ls) of two supporting pins is 80 mm.
As shown in Fig. 3(d), the three types of specimens (numbered as Ni-
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Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535
1, Ni-2, Ni-3) corresponding to the specimen group (G1, G2, G3), which
represented three orthogonal directions considering the different or-
ientation of the deposited layer. The specimens were tested in three
configurations to place the deposited layer in tension, compression,
tension-compression, respectively. The three-point bending test was
performed at a constant loading rate of 1 mm/min by using MTS uni-
versal electro-hydraulic servo tester, which was equipped with a real-
time image data acquisition system to capture deformation process.
After bending test, the flexural fracture surface of a fractured specimen
was examined using SEM.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Microstructure, chemical composition and constituent phases
The directional solidified microstructure of as-deposited Ni-based
superalloy which combined with H13 steel is illustrated in Fig. 4. From
the top of deposited layer to base metal, the local microstructure of
deposited layer, transition zone, heat affected zone (HAZ), and base
metal is shown in Figs. 4(b)–(f) corresponding to the regions b–f in
Fig. 4(a). The microstructure of deposited layer is characterized by
interdendritic eutectic structures and the finely intermixed dendrites
with directionality.
A large number of dense equiaxed dendrites and fine eutectic
structures with a small number of regular dendrites can be observed at
the top of the deposited layer (Fig. 4(b)). And the microstructure at the
bottom of the deposited layer mainly consists of coarse columnar
dendrites and cellular crystals (Fig. 4(c)). The interdendritic micro-
structure magnified by SEM and the different elemental analysis spots
of EDS are shown in Fig. 5(a). Also, detailed relative elemental dis-
tribution is summarized in Table 3. And Fig. 6 shows the three examples
of EDS spectra for the Spot c2, Spot c4 and Spot c1 in Fig. 5(c), which
represent the spectra of the three feature regions (i.e. Dendritic, Inter-
dendritic and Blocky, identified in Table 3) respectively. Dendritic
structure in the deposited layer is mainly surrounded by eutectic
structures with some blocky hard phase particles with fragmental
X. Lu et al.
features among them. The combination results analysis of EDS and XRD
(Fig. 5(b)) demonstrated that the matrix phase (dendritic structure) of
deposited layer is composed of γ-Ni solid solution (Ni, Cr, Fe elements
enriched), which were formed in the liquid phase firstly during rapid
cooling and solidification (104–106 °C s−1) process of laser depositing.
When the composition of the residual alloy melt is close to the eutectic
composition, the eutectic reaction take place between dendrites to form
eutectic structures which consist of γ-Ni and intermetallic compounds
(Ni3Fe, Ni3Nb). Moreover, a large number of blocky carbides pre-
cipitate discontinuously in the interdendritic structures. Compared with
the elements of the other two features in Table 3, the white blocky
carbides in Fig. 5(c)–(f) are rich in Cr and W elements. According to the
results of XRD and Ref. [22], Cr and a small amount of Fe will form
carbides M23C6, M7C3 (M = Cr, Fe). W and Some trace elements (Nb,
Ti) will form refractory metal carbides M6C, M3C, MC (M = W, Nb, Ti).
At the interfacial zone between deposited layer and base metal,
there is a clear “white bright band” (so called “fusion line”, i.e. in the
form of a planar crystal), which means that there is a good me-
tallurgically bonding between the deposited layer and base metal [23].
Since the base metal acted as a heat sink, epitaxial growth direction of
cellular crystals and columnar dendrites is perpendicular to the
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Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535
Fig. 4. Optical micrograph of as-deposited Ni-based su-
peralloy which combined with H13 steel: (a) the cross-
sectional microstructure; (b)–(f) the local magnification of
areas b–f in Fig. 3(a).
interface and along the opposite direction of the heat flow (i.e. height
direction of the deposited layer) [24]. The fusion interface between the
deposited layer and base metal is magnified by SEM micrograph in
Fig. 7. And the distribution of major elements (Ni, Cr, Fe) from the
deposited layer to heat affected zone is further depicted by EDS line
scanning. When powder and base metal are fused to form a molten pool
under the laser irradiation with high energy density, the main alloying
elements (Ni, Cr, Fe) are mixed and diffused in the interface between
the deposited layer and base metal due to the dilution effects of base
metal. More Fe element in base metal is mixed and diffused into the
deposited layer, while the Ni diffused element in the deposited layer
penetrated into the base metal. The formation of the transition zone
with a depth of about 50 μm reveals a good metallurgical bonding be-
tween the deposited layer (Ni-based superalloy) and base metal (H13
steel).
In Fig. 4(d) and (e), the detailed microstructure of heat affected
zone is presented with an average thickness of about 400 μm in
Fig. 4(a). The austenite grain size decreases gradually from the fusion
line to the heat affected zone in Fig. 4(d). During the long time de-
position process, the repeated heating of the heat source cause to a
small fluctuation of the temperature gradient and a low cooling rate
X. Lu et al. Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535

Fig. 5. SEM micrograph with EDS spots and XRD diffrac-

tion spectra of the deposited layer.

Table 3 distributed carbides. In Fig. 4(f), there are no obvious microstructure

EDS elemental analysis of different spots marked in Fig. 4(c)–(f). changes inside the base metal due to the stable temperature changes in
the laser depositing process. The base metal still retains the typical
Features Position Elements distribution (wt%)
microstructure of H13 steel after spheroidizing annealing, which is
C Cr Fe Ni W Nb Ti mainly composed of ferrite, pearlite, and dispersedly distributed gran-
ular carbides.
I Spot c2 – 6.2 4.6 84.1 – 4.2 0.9
Dendritic Spot d5 2.8 6.6 4.4 81.6 – 3.8 0.8
Spot e2 – 6.4 4.7 84.1 – 3.9 0.9
II Spot c4 3.1 5.8 4.3 81.1 – 4.9 0.8 3.2. Microhardness distribution
Interdendritic Spot d6 5.5 6.2 2.5 83.2 – 1.9 0.7
Spot e3 4.2 4.9 3.7 84.1 – 2.2 0.9 The average microhardness plot along the cross-section of the de-
Spot e4 4.5 5.4 3.0 84.3 – 1.7 0.9 posited material system is shown in Fig. 8. And the uncertainties cal-
Spot e5 3.2 6.5 4.4 81.3 – 3.8 0.8
culated at different depth of measurement are less than 7%. The
Spot e6 2.3 5.4 3.8 85.0 – 2.8 0.7
III Spot c1 11.4 34.3 3.0 42.2 6.8 1.7 0.6 average microhardness values of the previously mentioned four zones
Blocky Spot c3 17.6 44.9 1.9 25.0 10.6 – – in Fig. 4(a), i.e. deposited layer, transition zone, heat affected zone, and
Spot d1 12.1 43.3 2.6 32.2 9.8 – – base metal are 525 HV, 522 HV, 418 HV, and 302 HV, shows a declining
Spot d2 12.5 48.8 0.5 29.0 8.4 – 0.8
gradient distribution. The distribution is related to the microstructure
Spot e1 13.2 42.7 0.6 29.3 9.3 4.2 0.7
Spot f1 5.9 31.6 0.6 34.5 22.7 3.9 0.8
of the Ni-based superalloy/H13 steel system (in Fig. 4) and implies a
Spot f2 14.9 47.6 2.4 25.0 10.1 – – performance match of both materials in the whole system. Because of
quenching effects during the depositing of the first layer, the average
microhardness at the HAZ is higher than that of the base metal (as-
along the interface [25]. The closer to the fusion line, the higher the annealed). The highest microhardness value (551 HV) is achieved near
temperature and the smaller the fluctuation of temperature, which fa- the top surface of the deposited layer, which is more than two times of
vors the growth of austenite grains. The microstructures in Fig. 4(e) the base metal hardness. In the deposited layer zone, the average
mainly consist of fine lath martensites, reticular ferrites, and diffuse dendrite spacing near the top surface (upper zone) is shorter than that

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X. Lu et al.
in the lower zone due to the annealing effect. The cyclic heat flow from
the upper layers may play a significant role to determine the mor-
phology and mechanical properties. Result shows that the microhard-
ness near the top surface is higher than that in the lower part due to the
fine grain strengthening mechanism. In general, the higher hardness
will be accompanied by low toughness. Due to the microhardness near
the top surface of deposited layer is highest, this zone may be more
brittle than other zones, it will be the key position to analyse the
flexural response of the system.
3.3. Flexural response of the system
The result of the three-point bending test for the system is shown in
Fig. 9, which is represented by the arithmetic mean values of each test
group (three specimens for each group). Fig. 9(a) and (b) depict the
force-deflection curves of three kinds of specimens (Ni-1, Ni-2, Ni-3)
and one control group (H13). It can be observed that the macroscopic
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Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535
Fig. 6. Three examples of EDS spectra for the Spot c2, Spot
c4 and Spot c1 in Fig. 4(c).
deformation differences of specimens after bending test in Fig. 9(c). In
addition, some specified performance indexes (Standard YB/T 5349-
2014) are calculated from the test data and listed in Table 4. The initial
deformation stages of four groups of specimens are all in elastic de-
formation stage which are revealed by a monotone increasing force-
deflection characteristic (Fig. 9(a)) till reaching the plastic flexural
force Fpb (in Table 4). The slope of the linear elasticity portion mE can
represent the tendency for a material to flexure, i.e. the smaller the
value of “mE”, the easier the material will bend. It indirectly reflects the
flexural modulus that is calculated as the ratio of stress to strain in
flexural deformation. Table 4 shows that the mE of Ni-1, Ni-3, Ni-2
specimens are higher than that of H13 specimens, which means that the
laser deposited Ni-based superalloy effectively reduce the flexural de-
formation tendency of the H13 steel. And the mE value of Ni-1 speci-
mens is the larger than those of Ni-3, Ni-2 specimens, which indicates
that the strengthening effect is the most significant when the deposited
layer is on the tensile side (fully in tensile stress state). With the
X. Lu et al.
Fig. 8. Microhardness profile measured from the surface of the deposited layer to the core
of base metal.
increase of the flexural force, specimens further exhibit a plastic flex-
ural characteristic. Both the plastic flexural force Fpb (εf = 0.2%) and
the maximum flexural force Fbb of specimens Ni-3, Ni-2, Ni-1, H13
decrease in order. As zoomed in Fig. 9(b), further loading causes a
deviation in the deformation characteristic of specimens Ni-1 and Ni-3
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Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535
Fig. 7. Elemental distribution analysis by EDS line scanning.
compared with specimens Ni-2 and H13 (the specimens Ni-2 and H13
do not fracture). Both specimens Ni-1 and Ni-3 exhibit a primary
fracture behavior. And the fracture deflection fbb (in Table 4) of spe-
cimen Ni-3 is slightly greater than that of specimen Ni-1 which attrib-
uted to anisotropy of microstructure and stress states. Due to the in-
fluence of base metal deformation, the force-deflection curves of
specimens Ni-2 and Ni-3 show a secondary yielding characteristic. This
means that the Ni-based alloy/H13 steel system will not be broken in
the first fracture. During the actual bending test, only the specimens Ni-
3 was loaded till fractured.
Flexural deformation history of specimen Ni-1, Ni-2, Ni-3 is illu-
strated in Fig. 10(a)–(c), respectively. The bending angle of specimen
Ni-2 is obviously larger than those of the specimen Ni-1 and Ni-3, which
is consistent with the result of mE (Ni-2) < mE (Ni-3) < mE (Ni-1).
This indicates that the specimen Ni-2 is more prone to bend than the
specimen Ni-1 and Ni-3. The flexural stress-strain response is re-
presented by partially zoomed flexural stress (σf) versus flexural strain
(εf) curves (Fig. 10(d)). σf is the stress in outer fibers at midpoint, and εf
is the strain in the outer surface. The failure evolution of specimens (Ni-
1, Ni-2) at important times is also marked in Fig. 10(d). Macroscopic
photographs and σf–εf curves all reveal the anisotropy of the flexural
performance of the system (Ni-based superalloy/H13 steel). Due to the
effects of tensile stress in the outer fibers of the rectangular bending
specimen, generally, the initial crack appears on the outer surface of the
specimen Ni-1 and Ni-3 during the bending test. And it can be observed
that a one-way crack occurred at the bottom surface of the specimen Ni-
X. Lu et al. Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535

Fig. 9. Results of the three-point bending test: (a) force versus deflection curves; (b) macroscopic photographs of each specimen after bending test.

Table 4 high cooling rate during laser depositing, the microstructure of the
Averaged specified performance indexes calculated according to standard YB/T 5349- deposited layer which mainly contained fine columnar dendrites with
2014.
strong secondary arms (Figs. 4–7) generated by the epitaxial growth are
Specimen mE Fpb fpb Fbb fbb Rpb Rbb much smaller than that of H13 base metal. In addition to the inherent
(GPa) (N) (mm) (N) (mm) (MPa) (MPa) advantages of Ni-based superalloy in improving the flexural strength of
H13 base metal, it was believed that finer grain lead to higher strength
Ni-1 193.9 864.1 0.4 902.7 1.4 829.5 866.6
according to Hall–Petch relationship [26].
Ni-2 172.3 895.2 0.4 1523.1 – 859.4 1462.2
Ni-3 178.8 948.0 0.4 1009.9 1.7 910.1 969.5
In summary, during the bending test, when the deposited layer is
H13 147.8 510.5 0.4 1110.4 – 490.1 986.3 subjected to pure tensile stress (specimens Ni-1), or subjected to tensile
and compressive stress (specimens Ni-3), both flexural strength and
* mE: slope of the linear elasticity portion; Fpb: plastic flexural force (εf = 0.2%); fpb: fracture deflection are less than those when the deposited layer is
plastic flexural deflection (εf = 0.2%); Fbb: maximum flexural force; fbb: fracture deflec- subjected to pure compressive stress (specimens Ni-2). If the deposited
tion; Rpb: proof strength, plastic flexural deflection (εf = 0.2%); Rbb: flexural strength.
layer (Ni-based superalloy) is subjected to pure compressive stress, it
can improve the flexural capacity of the system to the greatest extent.
Meanwhile, if the tensile stress exists in the deposited layer during
flexural deformation, the flexural ductility of the H13 base metal will be
1 and Ni-3, which propagates to the top surface in Fig. 10(a) and (c), weakened.
and eventually causes a transverse fracture. Results of microhardness
(Fig. 8) and fracture analysis (Fig. 11) show that the outer layer ma-
terial (deposited Ni-based alloy) is harder and more brittle than that of 3.4. Fracture feature analysis
the inner layer material (substrate H13 steel), which could be assume
that the entire specimen is divided into ductile zone and brittle zone. In Fracture surfaces of specimen Ni-3 are shown in Fig. 11, and four
the bending test, the ductile zone of the specimen Ni-2 is subjected to zones are divided according to Fig. 4. The fracture surface of the de-
tensile stress, and the brittle zone is subjected to compressive stress, posited layer contains some torn belt without obvious slags, incomplete
while the specimen Ni-1 is in the opposite direction. Besides, the ductile fusion, and other defects. The appearance of fine columnar dendritic
and brittle zones of the specimen Ni-3 are subjected to both tensile and patterns along the epitaxial growth direction in the deposited layer
compressive stresses. Fig. 10(d) shows that the outer layer of Ni-1 (Fig. 11(a)) and the micro-cracks in the interdendritic (Fig. 11(b)) in-
specimen is subjected to a greater stress than that of Ni-2 specimen at dicate that the occurrence of intergranular fracture. The intergranular
the same strain level. So that the outermost layer (deposited Ni-based fracture is attributed to hard eutectic carbides distributed in the inter-
alloy) of the specimen Ni-1 is more likely to break under the tensile dendritic structures, which are indicative of weakness at interdendritic
stress than the outermost layer (substrate H13 steel) of the specimen Ni- boundaries and provide an easy path for crack propagation [27].
2. The flexural strength Rbb of Ni-2 specimen is obviously over 50% In the bonding zone, the fusion interface of Ni-based superalloy and
higher than those of the specimen of Ni-1, Ni-3, and H13. Owing to the H13 steel without penetrative cracks or secondary cracks can be

532
X. Lu et al.
observed clearly in Fig. 11(c) and (d). The fracture morphology on both
sides of the interface is similar, which further reveals a good me-
tallurgical bonding between the deposited layer and base metal. How-
ever, because flexural strength of the both sides of the fusion interface is
different. The fractograph at the side of base metal shows obviously
tearing ridges and retained fragments. Thus the fracture mode close to
the base metal can be concluded as quasi-cleavage fracture and the
fracture mode close to the deposited layer is still intergranular fracture.
Fig. 11(e) and (f) present the mixed fracture surface which com-
bined with brittle cleavage fracture with ductile fracture in the heat
affected zone. It can be observed that the fracture surface is char-
acterized by the gradual transition from cleavage facets to dimples
(indicated by the arrow above). And the closer the position is to the
bonding zone, the bigger area of the cleavage facets. The typical brittle
fracture with cleavage facets is a low energy brittle fracture and pro-
pagates along low index crystallographic planes that exhibits the poor
strength and ductility [28]. In conformity with the metallographic re-
sults from the base metal to the bonding interface (Fig. 4(d)), the closer
the area is to the bonding interface, the coarser the microstructure will
be all well as the poorer plasticity. In Fig. 11(g) and (h), the tear ap-
pearance indicates that the main fracture mode of H13 base metal can
be characterized as the ductile fracture due to the emergence of re-
cognizable equiaxed-shaped dimples. Due to micro-void coalescence,
the feature of voids is visible. And the cleavage feature was also ob-
served in a few spots.
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Surface & Coatings Technology 337 (2018) 525–535
Fig. 10. Flexural stress-strain response: (a)–(c) photo-
graphs illustrating the flexural deformation history of spe-
cimen Ni-1, Ni-2, Ni-3, respectively; (d) flexural stress
versus strain curves.
4. Conclusions
In this work, the Ni-based superalloy was deposited on H13 steel by
laser depositing. Its microstructure, microhardness and flexural re-
sponse were investigated. The main conclusions can be summarized as
follows:
1. Microstructure of deposited layer mainly contains interdendritic
eutectic structures and the finely intermixed dendrites with direc-
tionality. The γ-Ni dendritic structure (Ni, Cr, Fe enriched) is sur-
rounded by eutectic structures with some blocky carbides M23C6,
M7C3 (M = Cr, Fe) and some trace refractory metal carbides M6C,
M3C, MC (M = W, Nb, Ti).
2. From the top of deposited layer to base metal, Ni-based superalloy/
H13 steel system has a gradient microstructure which results in its
microhardness with a gradient distribution. The Ni-based alloy itself
and the fine microstructure of the deposited layer effectively
strengthen the base metal.
3. In Ni-based superalloy/H13 steel system, the deposited layer can
limit the flexural deformation tendency of the base metal. The
flexural capacity of the system can be maximized when the de-
posited layer is subjected to pure compressive stress. And the flex-
ural ductility of the system is weakened when the tensile stress exists
in the deposited layer. The flexural fracture of the Ni-based super-
alloy/H13 steel system is a mixture of ductile and brittle fracture.
X. Lu et al.
Acknowledgements
This present work was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51375425 and 51471148), P. R.
China; Hebei Province Natural Science Foundation of China (No.
E2015203156 and E2017203108); The basic research foundation of
Yanshan University (No. 16LGA002).
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