Description
Abstract: Alloys of titanium in various forms are employed in engineering applications due to superior strength and performance than its pure form. Ti-6Al-4V alloy is highly viable in the aerospace, marine and automotive industries. Since it contains a combination of alpha- and beta- stabilizers, and it also maintains its specific strength within wide range of elevated temperatures. The hybrid coatings (Al-Cu-Fe) is one of the abundant multi-component metallic systems consisting of phases belonging to the group of quasicrystalline structures. From the obtained results, the key process parameters such as laser power and scanning speed have tremendous influence on the relationship between the melts depth, width, height and heat affected zone respectively. The geometrical properties increase and decrease with increase in laser power and scanning speed. increasing laser power results in deposition becoming denser and thus, less porous. This is due to higher energy delivered onto the surface that leads to more molten powder. Ti reacted with Al, Fe and Cu powders to form intermetallic phases. The optimum coating performance was obtained for an alloy composition of Ti-6A-4V/Al-5Cu-5Fe composite, at laser power of 900 W and scanning speed of 1.2 m/min.
Authors: E.T. Akinlabi, O.S. Fatob, S.A. Akinlabi, M.E. Makhatha
Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V alloy; Microstructure; Al-Cu-Fe coating; Clad height, clad width