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New method of in-situ fabrication of protective coatings

based on Fe–Al intermetallic compounds
T Chmielewski and D A Golan´ ski*
Warsaw University of Technology, Narbutta, Warsaw, Poland

The manuscript was received on 8 July 2010 and was accepted after revision for publication on 27 July 2010.

DOI: 10.1177/2041297510394050

Abstract: The paper presents the initial investigation results on producing surface
protec- tive coatings made of Fe–Al intermetallic compounds on steel substrates. The Fe–Al
coating is obtained in a two-step process. First, the steel substrate is thermally sprayed
with pure alu- minium having a thickness of about 0.3 ◦mm. In this way both components (Fe,
Al) are prepared for subsequent melting and synthesis. In the final step, the aluminium
coating is remelted together with the surface of the steel substrate by the CO2 laser beam. The
resulting molten pool
consists of aluminium and iron in equal parts, allowing it to form a Fe–Al intermetallic
com- pound during the in-situ process of remelting. The formation of Fe–Al intermetallic
compound has been verified by the microhardness and X-ray diffraction measurements of
the analysed coatings. The developed method is a cheap alternative compared with other
surface modifi- cation processes utilizing commercially prepared intermetallic coating
materials. In addition, the remelting process substantially increases the strength of the
coating bond, which has a magnitude close to that observed for hard-facing processes.

Keywords: coatings, laser remelting, intermetallics

1 INTRODUCTION The main production costs are related to the

Intermetallic compounds have been considered to
be functional materials with specific chemical and
phys- ical properties for over 20 years. Year by year,
they are being more widely used in engineering
applications owing to the vast exploration of this
group of materials and the development in the
science of intermetallics [1, 2]
Difficulties in the application of intermetallics lie
in their high brittleness at room temperature.
Other problems are connected with the production
of bulk machine parts having solid small grain
structure without microcracks and discontinuities.
Nowadays, an increasing interest in the application
of Fe–Al intermetallics may be observed. This is the
effect of their relatively low price compared to other
intermetallic materials.
*Corresponding author: Institute of Manufacturing Technolo-
gies, Department of Welding Engineering, Warsaw University of
Technology, Narbutta 85, room 221, Warsaw 02-524, Poland.
email: dgol@wip.pw.edu.pl
base materials and processing. The traditional
methods of intermetallic production use melting
and cast- ing processes, which seemed to be
insufficient. The new methods of intermetallic
fabrication are based on powder metallurgy,
utilizing consolidation tech- niques with
components of materials in the base as well as
complex forms [3, 4].
The intermetallic compounds are very often applied
in industry as a protective surface layer. In most
cases, the deposited material is composed of
specially pre- alloyed intermetallic powder which is
commercially available as the raw material, but in
such cases the coating production may be rather
expensive [5].
The thermal spraying of intermetallics has
been known and used in industry for many years [6,
7]. This method has many advantages but it is
important to realize the weak points of this process,
which are the tendency for coating delamination,
limited coating adhesion to the substrate (below
40◦MPa), porosity,
limited thickness of the coating (up to 0.4◦mm), and
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2 T Chmielewski and D A Golan
reduced resistance to concentrated loads.
In the current paper a novel two-stage approach
is introduced which allows for in-situ fabrication
of

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Fe–Al intermetallic layers utilizing traditional thermal was used to produce an aluminium layer, which in
joining methods. This process offers several advan- the second stage was subsequently remelted to obtain
tages over the previously mentioned methods. the Fe–Al surface layer.

2 EXPERIMENTAL WORK
2.1 Thermal spraying
The process of fabrication of Fe–Al intermetallic com- The thermal arc spraying method was used to deposit
pounds was performed in two stages. The first a 0.3◦mm aluminium layer (using 1.6◦mm pure
stage alu- minium wire) on to the substrate material
made of unalloyed steel (98.5 per cent Fe) in the form
of a pipe with diameter of 30◦mm. The
microstructure of ther-
mally sprayed aluminium coating is shown in Fig. 1.
The diffraction patterns obtained from the layer show
that the coating is composed of aluminium (see Fig. 2).
In this way the two main components, that is alu-
minium in the coating and iron in the substrate, have
been prepared for melting and synthesis to obtain the
Fe–Al intermetallic layer.

2.2 Laser remelting

In the final stage of the introduced method, the
deposited aluminium coating is remelted
together with the surface of the steel substrate
Fig. 1 The microstructure of aluminium layer thermally
(at the total thickness of 0.6◦mm) by a concentrated
sprayed on to the steel (S235JR) substrate
energy beam (CO2 laser) (see Fig. 3). The established
metallic pool

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Fig. 2 Diffraction patterns of thermally sprayed aluminium layer

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 New method of in-situ fabrication of protective 61

Fig. 3 The scheme of mutual remelting of aluminium coating and steel substrate

(liquid metal area) is composed in equal parts of the precipitated Al2O3 grains not larger than 2◦µm. The
aluminium coating and partly melted steel substrate.
The surface of the aluminium coating after remelt-
ing is shown in Fig. 4(a). The total width of the bead
produced was about 3.5◦mm. To form such a wide
bead it is necessary to make several passes, each
of them lapping the previous one at the distance of
0.8◦mm. Figure 4(b) presents the coating that
has been remelted with multiple lap passes of
the CO2 laser beam.
The concentrated laser beam allowed
particular metallurgical conditions to be created in
which a new compound with equal parts of
aluminium and iron was formed.

2.3 Microstructure examination

The basic metallographic examination was used to
characterize the microstructure and hardness of
the remelted layer. Figure 5 presents the
microstructure of the aluminium coating taken
from the region cov- ering the boundary between
sprayed and remelted material. On the left side of
the picture the partially melted sprayed aluminium
coating can be seen, while the right part shows the
remelted layer.
It is possible to distinguish a new alloy formed in
the layer with a cell structure that is typical for
intermetal- lic compounds. The structure of this
material is built of grains having an average size of
20◦µm and dispersion
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61 T Chmielewski and D A Golan
existence of Al2O3 particles evenly distributed in
the volume of the remelted area may have a positive
effect on the tribological properties of the layer
produced.
The remelted layer is free of cracks and
porosity, which is typical for coatings deposited
by thermal spraying. The process ensures that the
coating is tight and lacks geometric notches acting
as stress concen- trators. The biggest advantage of
the applied remelt- ing process, compared to the
traditionally sprayed methods, is the
development of metallurgical bonds between
coating and substrate, giving an adhesion strength
that is higher by one order of magnitude, and close
to values typical for hard-facing methods.
The diffraction patterns of the analysed
remelted layer are shown in Fig. 6. They confirm
the existence of Fe–Al intermetallic compound as
the main struc- tural component in the layer. A
small fraction of other incidental phases (Al2O3 and
FeSi2) is also reported. The Al2O3 phase is formed
during remelting owing to the reaction of
aluminium with oxygen from the air. It has not
been observed in the layer obtained in the first
stage of aluminium deposition.

2.4 Microhardness testing

To confirm the existence of Fe–Al intermetallic
com- pound in the remelted layer, the
microhardness measurements have been
conducted using a Leitz– Wetzlar tester µHV0.1
with 20◦s loading time. The microhardness
distribution across the steel substrate
and the remelted layer is shown in Fig. 7. To check

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 New method of in-situ fabrication of protective 61

Fig. 4 The surface view of the aluminium coating remelted by the laser beam: (a) after a single pass;
(b) after multiple lapping passes

Fig. 5 The microstructure of remelted aluminium coating (right), Nomarski, ×100

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61 T Chmielewski and D A Golan

Fig. 6 Diffraction patterns of remelted aluminium layer

Fig. 7 Microhardness distribution across the steel substrate and remelted layer

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 New method of in-situ fabrication of protective
for a possible influence of the thermal cycle on
the substrate material the measurements have been
con- ducted beneath the surface of the substrate
up to a depth of 2.5 mm.
The reported hardness in the steel substrate
increased to 400 µHV0.1 only within the heat-affected
zone (HAZ), which covered the region of 0.3 mm
width directly adjacent to the melted zone. The
mea- sured hardness in the remelted layer was
in the range 840–950 µHV0.1. This level is similar
to val- ues found in Fe–Al secondary solid-state
solutions. The obtained results reflect chemical,
structural, and phase homogeneity of the layer
produced.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The proposed novel method is an alternative for
currently used methods of surface modification
of steel utilizing expensive intermetallic coating
mate- rials (mostly in the form of powders). The
main advantage of the developed method is the low
cost of materials used, which are aluminium and
iron. They are the only components required to form
a new com- pound layer by simultaneous remelting
of a coating with the surface of the metallic
substrate. Moreover, the applied method allows an
adhesion level between the coating and substrate to
be produced that is higher by one order of
magnitude than that produced by thermal
spraying.
The presented method allows for in-situ
produc- tion of protective coatings based on the
secondary
61
Fe–Al solution. Its unique structure, mechanical, and
service properties may create new application
paths for building machine components subjected
to high mechanical and thermal loads and
working under severe wear conditions.
© Authors 2011
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