Comparison study of H13 tool steel microstructure produced by laser cladding and laser consolidation

Abstract

Laser cladding is used to deposit desired materials at specified locations to enhance the surface properties or to repair damaged regions, while laser consolidation is used to build functional components or features on existing components. Although both processes are based on the melting of substrate surface along with injected powder (or wire) to deposit material, their cooling patterns and cooling rates could be significantly different. As a result, the microstructures of the same material deposited by laser cladding and laser consolidation may show some differences, which could ultimately affect mechanical properties of the deposited material. In this paper, x-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and other techniques were used to compare the microstructure of AISI H13 tool steel deposited by laser cladding and laser consolidation processes. Their microhardness and residual stresses were also measured. It was found that although both laser clad and laser consolidated H13 material exhibit "as-deposited" and "re-heated" regions in their microstructures, the morphology of these respective regions shows substantial differences. These factors may have been influenced microhardness and residual stresses.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye