Hashem F. El-Labban et al.

/ International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST)

On the Possibility of Laser Cladding for

304 Stainless Steel using Commercially
Pure Titanium
Hashem F. El-Labban1 and Essam R.I. Mahmoud2*
1
Department of Production Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt. dr_labbanh@yahoo.com
2
Assistant Professor, Welding and NDT Lab., Manufacturing Technology Dept., Central Metallurgical
Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), Cairo, Egypt.
Tel. /Fax : +202-38413157 / +202-225010639; E. mail: essamibrahim2@yahoo.com
Abstract
This work is an attempt to study the possibility of cladding the 304 stainless steel with commercially pure
titanium powder using YAG fiber laser. The treatments were carried out at powers of 2800, 2400 and 2000 W
and travelling speeds of 4 and 8 mm/s. In the titanium side, acicular α' martensite structure was produced. At
low travelling speed (4 mm/s), coarse intermetallic phases (FeTi and Fe2Ti) were formed, and decohesion were
resulted at the interface between the cladding layer and the substrate. At higher speed (8 mm/s), the cracking
was reduced. Complete cohesion was resulted in case of 2000 W. Remarkable improvements in surface
hardness and wear resistance were achieved at all the processing condition. Higher hardness and lower wear
weight losses were obtained at lower processing power of 2000 W and travelling speed of 8 mm/s.
Keywords: Laser cladding, Stainless steels, Pure titanium, Wear resistance, Corrosion resistance, YAG Fiber
laser.
1. Introduction
Stainless steels are generally characterized by high mechanical and corrosion resistance which are
suitable for many industrial and medical applications [Kwok et al. (2006)]. They can be used for replacing failed
hard tissues [Niinomi (2003)]. However, the dental implants fabricated from stainless steels have high tensile
modulus of elasticity (E = 200 to 240 GPa) which are much higher than that of cortical bone (the modulus of
cortical bone is approximately 20 Gpa) [Brama and Rhodes (2007)]. The large difference in elastic modulus
between the medical implants and the cortical bone can cause some tissues to be not regularly stressed, causing
it resorbed by the body [Li et al. (2006)]. In these cases, production of an anisotropic structure which matching
the directionality of cortical bone is difficult. In case of titanium alloys, the modulus value varies from 80 to 120
Gpa [Greger et al. (2009)], which make them the mostly used materials for medical implants [Brama et al.
(2007); Petruźelka et al. (2006). Ti–6Al–4V titanium alloy has been the main biomedical alloy for a long period
[Niinomi (1998)]. However, the small percentages of vanadium and aluminum presented in this alloy are
potentially toxic [Krallics (2009); Niinomi et al. (2005); Silva et al. (2004)]. On the other hand, pure titanium is
considered the optimum selection from the biocompatibility point of view. It can be used in orthopedics due to
its low elastic modulus and high biocompatibility [Petruźelka et al. (2006)]. In the same time, this pure titanium
has low strength, and poor wear [Liu et al. (2004)] and fatigue resistances [Garbacz et al. (2007)]. The problems
of lower tribological and fatigue properties can be improved by application of various laser surface treatments
with effective conditions [Tavakoli et al. (2007)]. Some investigators [Tavakoli et al. (2007)], used the laser
surface melting technique to improve the biocompatibility of Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The laser surface melting
treatment decreases the contact angle with the human cell and as a result more cell adhesion to the surface.
Moreover, laser technology can also be used to clad a thin surface layer of the workpiece, in which the cladding
material and a thin layer of the substrate are melted together to form a cladding layer with improved properties
[Pei and De Hosson (2000)]. This treatment can be considered as an effective and economic technique for
improving the surface properties and performance of the material as a whole [Pei and De Hosson (2000)].
It is desirable for implants application to produce materials of high strength with high biocompatibility and
wear resistance. To achieve these targets, it is suggested to use the stainless steel that has a high strength, as a
bulk material and coat its surface with pure titanium which has high biocompatibility. Traditional arc welding
and thermal spraying can be used as cladding techniques. However, residual stresses can be generated due to
the difference in thermo physical properties of the used different materials. Furthermore, the difference in
chemistry of the combined materials can produce brittle intermetallic phases. The generation of tensile residual
stress and/or the presence of brittle intermetallic phases can cause cracking [Dharmendra et al. (2011)].
Moreover, in case of welding the titanium alloy to steels with the traditional arc welding, the control of the
molten pool is very difficult due to the huge amount of the intermetallic phase that can be formed [Chen et al.
(2014)].

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Fast cooling rate during solidification of dissimilar materials can reduce the size of these intermetallics [Lin et
al. (2010)]. The high cooling rates can be obtained in cases of laser surface melting & cladding [Tavakoli et al.
(2007)]. By using laser of high power density in welding of dissimilar joints, the cooling rate can reach to a
degree greater than 1000 °C/s which reduce the number and sizes of intermetallic phases in the interface
[Shanmugarajan and Padmanabham (2012)].
In this paper, an attempt is presented to study the possibility of use laser cladding technique to build up a thick
layer of pure titanium on 304 stainless steel alloy. The microstructure and wear resistance of the cladding layer
and substrate will be characterized.
2. Experimental work
304 Stainless steel alloy specimens with dimensions of 100 mm x 50 mm x 3 mm were used as a substrate. The
specimens were ground using emery papers and cleaned in acetone to remove any dirt, oil, grease and other
contaminants. The pure titanium powder with a particle size of 3-10 μm were preplaced on the cleaned surface
to form a layer of thickness 1 mm. the cladding treatments were carried out using YAG Fiber laser (Ytterbium
– Laser system (YLS-3000 – SM, 3 kW). To avoid the oxidation during the treatment, argon gas with the flow
rate of 15 l/min was used as a shielding gas. The treatments were carried out at processing powers of 2800,
2400 and 2000 W and travelling speeds of 4 and 8 mm/s. The process was conducted at a defocusing distance
(Df) of 65 mm. The microstructures of the coated layer and substrates were investigated using optical
microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with EDX analyzer. The substrate and the laser treated
area were analyzed by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to identify experimentally the existent phases that were
originally found or the intermetallics phases formed during laser processing. The micro-Vickers hardness in the
coated layer cross-section and the substrate were measured with an indentation load of 9.8 N and loading time
of 15s at room temperature. The wear behaviour of the laser cladded zone was evaluated using a pin-on-disk
dry sliding wear tester in air at room temperatures. A stationary sample with a diameter of 2.5 mm was slid
against a rotating disk with a rotational speed of 265 rpm for 15 min. The tests were carried out at a fixed load
of 1 bar applied to the pin. Before the test, all the specimens were ground on emery paper up to # 600 to get
smooth and flattened surface. The specimens were weighted before and after the test with a sensitive electronic
balance with an accuracy of 0.001 g. The differences in average weight before and after the wear test were
measured and accounted. Three specimens of each condition were chosen for wear tests. The untreated base
metal was selected as the reference material for the wear test.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Microstructure Characterization
The microstructure of the substrate was consisted of equiaxed, twinned austenitic-grain structure as shown in
Fig. 1. When high laser processing power of 2800 W and slow travelling speed of 4 mm/s were used,
decohesion or separation between the cladding layer and substrate was resulted as shown in Fig. 2 (a). These
decohesion appeared as knife line crake as shown in the enlarged SEM image in Fig. 2 (b). This high laser
power resulted in higher energy density, and the molten area can be maintained for a longer time in its liquid
state by slower travelling speed. These conditions led to relatively slow cooling rate, and consequently gave a
chance for the alloying elements from the stainless steel side to immigrate to the Ti side.

Fig. 1 Microstructure of the 304 stainless steel substrate.

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Fig. 2 Optical (a) and SEM (b) micrographs for microstructures of the interface between cladding layer and the substrate in case of 2800 W
processing power and 4 mm/s travelling speed.

In the same time, a percentage of titanium was also immigrated to the stainless steel side, as clearly shown in the
EDX elements distribution in Fig. 3. In this figure, the Fe, Cr, and Ni elements diffused to the Ti side with
reasonable percentages. Moreover, the carbon also diffused, but with low percentage. Due to the slow cooling
rate at these conditions, these diffused elements can react with the Ti at the interface and form course
intermetallic phases. Moreover, with the aid of EDX analyzer, some intermetallics were observed also in areas
near the interface in the Ti side as shown in the enlarged image in Fig. 4. These results were confirmed with the
XRD analysis shown in Fig. 5. The XRD spectra showed considerable peaks for FeTi and Fe2Ti intermetallic
phases in addition to the Ti element. Furthermore, other peaks for FeCr, NiTi and Cr2Ti were detected. By
increasing the laser travelling speed to double of the previous condition to be 8 mm/s, and maintain the laser
power at 2800 W, the cooling rate became faster, and the amount and size of the intermetallics phases could be
decreased. In this case, partial cohesion between the Ti cladding layer and the stainless steel substrate can be
resulted as shown in Fig. 6 (a). The higher laser power widened the heat affected zone of the stainless steel side.
In addition, acicular α-Ti martensite structure was appeared in the Ti cladding layer as shown in Fig. 6 (b), due
to the relatively rapid cooling rate. This feature of structure will improve the hardness and wear resistance.

Fig. 3 SEM image for the microstructures at the interface between the cladding layer and the substrate, and EDX analyses together with
distribution for the different elements at the heat affected zone of base metal (1), interface layers; (2), (3) and (4) in case of 2800 W
processing power and 4 mm/s travelling speed.

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Fig. 4 SEM image for the microstructure of zone (2), shown in Fig. 3, and EDX analyses for elements in the black and white areas.

Fig. 5 XRD analysis of the Ti cladding layer beside the interface.

Fig. 6 Optical micrographs for microstructures of the interface (a) and Ti cladding layer in case of 2800 W processing power and 8 mm/s
travelling.

At laser power of 2400 W and travelling speed of 8 mm/s, better cohesion at the interface between the stainless
steel and the Ti cladding layer was resulted as shown in Fig. 7. In spite of the diffusion of the alloying elements
to Ti side, as detected by EDX analysis, acceptable cohered interface was appeared. This can be attributed to
that the heat generated and the cooling rate was not sufficient to produce the harmful course intermetallics
phases. The cohesion between the cladding layer and the substrate can be improved by decreasing the laser
power to be 2000 W, and maintaining the travelling speed at its higher values (8 mm/s) as shown in Fig. 8. At
this condition, the heat affected zone width was remarkably decreased. This is mainly due to the rapid cooling
rate and low quantity of heat dissipated in this zone during the treatment. The generated higher cooling rate
leads to no time for grain growth in the heat affected zone.

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Fig. 7 SEM image for the microstructures of the interface area in case of 2400 W processing power and 8 mm/s travelling speed and EDX
analyses for their elements.

Fig. 8 Optical micrographs for microstructures of the interface (a) and heat affected zone of the stainless steel side (b) in case of 2000 W
processing power and 8 mm/s travelling.

3.2. Surface Microhardness Evaluation

The average hardness of the untreated 304 stainless steel sample was 200 HV. Fig. 9 shows the microhardness
distribution through the cross-sections of specimens treated at 2800, 2400 and 2000 W processing power and 8
mm/s travelling speed starting from the free surface and going though the specimen depth.
As it can be seen, the microhardness at the free surface of the specimens produced at all investigated condition
show a remarkable improvement reached to almost 4 times as the base metal. This enhancement of hardness can
be mainly attributed to the formation of acicular martensite α'-Ti structure, and the grain refinement of the
cladding layer. Generally, the structural refinement and the formation of martensitic structure are resulted due to
the rapid cooling rate during the solidification. The processing power is one of the main factors in laser cladding
which alter the hardness and the depth of treated zones. From this figure, it is clear that the hardness shows
higher values at lower laser powers. This is may be due to the relatively faster cooling rate during solidification.
This rapid cooling rate gives a chance to the formation of more and fine martensitic structure which increases the
hardness. However, the depth of the hardened zone produced at this lower power became smaller. At higher
power, the hardness improvement shows relatively lower values but for a deeper distance.

Fig. 9 Microhardness distribution along the depth of the treated zone at different laser powers and fixed travelling speed at 8 mm/s.

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3.3. Wear Evaluation

The wear rates were calculated for the cladded layer and the substrate material as described in the experimental
work. Fig. 10 shows the variation of wear weight loss of the specimens surface cladded using different powers
at fixed travelling speed of 8 mm/s. The wear tests were done by pin-on-disk dry sliding tribometer at a fixed
load of 5 N in air at room temperatures. Compared with the cast iron base metal, all the investigated laser
cladded samples have excellent wear properties under dry-sliding wear test condition. The weight loss of sample
treated by laser power of 700 W was almost one over forty of the untreated sample. This exceptional wear
resistance improvement came from the hard, stable, wear resistant fine TiC dendritic particles which in-situ
formed, and homogenously distributed inside hard martensite matrix. Based on the experimental results, the
weight losses were increased by increasing the laser power. The relatively faster cooling rate after the lower
laser power resulted in refinement of both the reinforcement (TiC particles) and the matrix (full martensite
microstructure), which help in improve the wear characteristics. On the other hand, the relatively slower cooling
rate after higher laser power resulted in relatively course TiC particles inside a matrix of large martensite lathes
and retained austenite.

Fig. 10 Wear weight loss of the substrate and specimens treated at different laser powers with fixed travelling speed of 8 mm/s.

4. Conclusions
304 stainless steel alloy specimens were cladded by pure titanium powder using YAG Fiber laser. The
treatments were carried out at powers of 2800, 2400 and 2000 W, and at travelling speeds of 4 and 8 mm/s. In
these processes, argon was used as a shielding gas. The microstructural features, surface microhardness and
wear weight loss were characterized. The results of this study lead to the following conclusions:
1. Decohesion at the interface between the cladding layer and the substrate was resulted at lower travelling
speed of 4 mm/s, and higher processing power of 2800 W, by the formation of coarse intermetallic phases (such
as FeTi and Fe2Ti).
2. Partial cohesion was obtained by increasing the travelling speed to 8 mm/s at processing power of 2800 W.
3. Complete cohesion was achieved by lowering the processing power to 2000 W at travelling speed of 8 mm/s.
4. Acicular α' martensite structure was produced in the cladding layer due to the rapid cooling rate during
solidification.
5. Remarkable improvement in surface hardness was achieved by application of the cladding treatment in the
tested conditions. At low processing power, the improvement in hardness is higher than that in case of higher
power, but within a smaller depth.
6. The wear resistance was remarkably improved in all the processing conditions, especially at low power and
fast travelling speed.
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