Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572

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Optics and Laser Technology

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The influence of the pre-placed powder layers on the morphology, T

microscopic characteristics and microhardness of Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC
coatings during laser cladding
⁎
Chaoqi Qia, Xiaohong Zhana, Qiyu Gaoa, Lijun Liub, , Yuanzeng Songc, Yaping Lic
a
College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
b
Ningbo Institute of Technology, Zhejiang University, Ningbo 315100, China
c
Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd, Shanghai 200126, China

H I GH L IG H T S

• The coatings prepared by TC4 + WC powder is better than that by WC powder.

• The new phases (W C, W, TiC) are observed during laser cladded WC + TC4 process.
2

• Different C content and microstructure exist under different pre-placed powder.

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Ti-6Al-4V/WC metal matrix composite (MMC) coatings provide an adequate solution for high wear resistance
Laser cladding application of Ti-6Al-4V. Laser cladding process, which has been extensively researched as an advanced re-
Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC pairing and strengthening technology, is considered to be an important candidate to combine the ductile metal
Microstructure matrix and high surface properties. In this study, the powder-presetting laser cladding technology was employed
Microhardness
to fabricate WC particles reinforced MMC coatings applying pre-placed pure WC powder layers and Ti-6Al-4V/
WC powder layers, respectively. These experiments were performed to investigate the influence of the pre-placed
powder layers on the Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC coatings. The morphology, microscopic characteristics and micro-
hardness of the coatings were scrutinized using optical microscopy, X-ray diffractometer, scanning electron
microscopy and Vickers hardness tester. The experimental results show that the coatings fabricated from pre-
placed Ti-6Al-4V/WC powder are enhanced more obviously in comparison with pure WC powder, which is
related to the more uniform distribution of WC, smooth morphology of coatings and homogeneous distribution
of microhardness.

1. Introduction advantageous bulk properties unaffected [7].

Ti-6Al-4V has been defined as a critical material for the aerospace
industry because of its high specific strength, excellent corrosion re-
sistance and toughness properties compared to other structural mate-
rials [1–4]. Nevertheless, the widespread application of titanium alloys
is hampered by their poor wear resistance which limits the required
surface performances. Since some problems occurred when Ti-6Al-4V
serviced due to undesirable surface properties, and Ti-6Al-4V is ex-
pensive to purchase and machine [5,6], a repairing and strengthening
technology that could restore the use of failure components is indis-
pensable and provide enhanced surface quality while keeping the
Laser cladding, an additive manufacturing (AM) technique in which
materials are deposited onto the substrate, has been widely reported as
a common repair technology [8–10]. This is attributed that the tech-
nology offers numerous advantages, such as high efficiency, low dilu-
tion rate and reduced production costs, over conventional surface
treatment techniques [11]. Meanwhile, protecting Ti-6Al-4V with a
high-performance coating provides an adequate solution to exhibit
enhanced properties. During laser cladding process, a high-powered
laser is used to create a molten pool with embedded hard ceramic re-
inforcement particles, which is proven to be an appropriate method to
obtain a unique combination of ductile metal matrix and high surface

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: liulijunemail@163.com (L. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2019.105572
Received 18 March 2019; Received in revised form 25 April 2019; Accepted 8 May 2019
Available online 17 May 2019
0030-3992/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
C. Qi, et al.
properties. The hard particles reinforced metal matrix composites
(MMCs) are widely used in wear resistance field [12–15], which is as-
cribed to their high hardness and excellent strength, combined with
relatively low costs.
In recent years, typical researches about laser cladded MMCs are
dominated at the theoretical analysis and experimental verification
[16–19]. Among the range of materials normally used in MMCs laser
surface process, titanium alloys, especially Ti-6Al-4V, mixed with hard
ceramic particles (WC, B4C, TiN and TiC) have received considerable
attention owing to their required wear resistance [20–22]. Laser clad-
ding of pre-blended Ti-6Al-4V/WC powder has been carried out and the
properties of the cladding layer have been reported by Farayibi et al.
They were able to achieve a uniform cladding later with an even dis-
tribution of WC particles within the coatings and with improved me-
chanical properties when compared with Ti-6Al-4V substrate. Fei et al.
[2] stated it was also necessary to investigate the comprehensive effects
of processing parameters, such as laser power and scanning speed, on
the optimum properties of wear resistance and hardness. It was re-
ported that when cladding Co42 + B4C mixed powder on Ti-6Al-4V
titanium substrate, refined TiC dendrites, high microhardness and fa-
vorable wear resistance were achieved when a moderate laser specific
energy was used. Moreover, there were obvious burning loss occurred
on the specimens which were fabricated with pre-placed Co42 + 15 wt
%B4C powder.
Apart from the parameters, the cladding materials system also has
an appreciable impact on the MMC coatings. A correlation between the
powder composition and microstructure has already been investigated
with respect to microhardness and wear resistance of the TiC particle
reinforced Ti-6Al-4V MMC coatings by Candel et al. [23]. Results in-
dicated that an increase in TiC volume fraction gives rise to enhance-
ment of microhardness while a decrease in the coefficient of friction
and wear rate. Moreover, Gopinath et al. [24] scrutinized the thermal
history online during laser cladding of Inconel 718/Ti + C MMC coat-
ings with TiC wt% varying from 0 to 100% and lucubrate the influence
of TiC percentage on the thermal history and microstructure of the clad
layers. Their data and results can be used for selecting TiC wt% as per
the desired microstructure and for obtaining defect-free MMC coatings.
The burning loss and decomposition of WC are the primary factors
affecting the MMC coating performance. However, the previous re-
searches clarified that the obvious burning loss and dissolution, even
the agglomeration of WC particles could be observed owing to the di-
rect interaction between laser and WC. Thus, the principal aim of this
work is to achieve the desired coatings by employing different pre-
placed powder. In this paper, the phases and element distribution of
pre-placed Ti-6Al-4V/WC powder layers necessary for MMC coatings
was studied. Further, the effect of different powder layers on the
cladding morphology, WC particle dissolution and microhardness of
MMC coatings were also analyzed.
2. Experiment
140 mm × 7.5 mm × 6 mm Ti-6Al-4V titanium alloy was applied as
the substrate material in this study. In order to remove contaminants, in
all cases, the base material (BM) has been polished and cleaned with
acetone prior to preparing the pre-placed powder. The composite
powder was a combination of Ti-6Al-4V powder (99.5% purity,
50–150 μm) and WC powder (99.9% purity, 100–150 μm). The SEM
micrograph of the pre-placed powders was shown in Fig. 1. The powder
was evenly preset on the BM with a thickness of 0.3 mm, which is
prepared in the molds with different thickness. The powder distribution
of series 1 and series 2 is composed of 0.3 mm WC powder and 0.2 mm
WC + 0.1 mm Ti-6Al-4V powder, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2. Be-
fore the laser cladding process, the specimens had been dried in a va-
cuum drying oven at the temperature of 150 °C for 2 h.
The coatings were fabricated in an argon environment with less
than 60 ppm oxygen content during laser cladding process using a 6-
2
Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572
axis KUKA robot that was equipped with a Rofin-Sinar laser system
capable of achieving the power of 2000 W. All final coatings were
manufactured with the basic parameters, which are given in Table 1. In
addition, the focal length applied in each experiments is 60 mm uni-
formly. A schematic view of the laser cladding process is shown in
Fig. 3. The laser cladding system is presented in Fig. 4.
Following the laser cladding process, the metallographic samples
were cut along cross-section and longitudinal section of specimens. And
then the polished samples were etched for microscopic inspection and
subsequent mechanical property characterization. The phase is also
essential to be able to enhance the contrast between the WC particles
and Ti-6Al-4V matrix. Therefore, the XRD analysis was carried out
using an Empyrean XRD system. The microstructure of the cladding
layers were observed using an optical microscope and scanning electron
microscope. The hardness of coatings was measured using a Vickers
hardness tester with a 1000 g load and 15-s dwelling time.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The morphology
Fig. 5 shows an element distribution and typical back-scattered
electron (BSE) image of the Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC layer. Based on the
morphological characteristics of the coating and EDS analysis, the white
particles in Fig. 5(a) are the single crystal WC. It is important to note
the obvious dilution of Ti-6Al-4V and diffusion of WC in composite
layer (CL), which are demonstrated by the lighter orange (Ti) in CL and
more intense orange in the substrate. The macroscopic inspection of
MMC samples also reveals a well-formed metallurgical bond between
cladding material and substrate.
Transverse sections of single laser cladding layers, produced with
different laser power and scanning speed, have been examined using an
optical microscope so as to obtain a suitable set of processing para-
meters. Fig. 6 shows the variation in the selected laser cladded Ti-6Al-
4V/WC coatings with the changes in specific energy and pre-placed
powder at low magnification. The width of a single laser track is about
4 mm, the maximum depth is 0.4 mm and the maximum height is
0.6 mm. Meanwhile, the laser cladded samples can be visually divided
into three regions corresponding to the CL, the heat affected zone
(HAZ), and the substrate respectively. From Fig. 6, the WC particles
submerged in coatings of series 1 are coarser than that embedded in
series 2 and differ from the initial WC powder, implying that some
powders comes into contact with each other during laser cladding
process of series 1. The unusual enlargement of WC particles in the
coatings is mainly determined by the direct interaction between ori-
ginal WC particles and laser beam. The melting point of WC is sig-
nificantly higher than that of Ti-6Al-4V. Therefore, it is the primary
reason for WC agglomeration in the MMC coatings that WC particles are
partially melted and subsequently solidified into a large WC particle
before creating the Ti-6Al-4V molten pool. In comparison, the shape
and particle size of the WC inside coatings is similar to that of original
powder, as shown in Fig. 6(b, d, f). The WC particles in series 2 are
slightly or not dissolved during laser cladding, which is attributed that
the coverage of Ti-6Al-4V powder layer protects WC powders from laser
irradiation effectively.
Generally, there is a high tendency for the WC particles, especially
the above-mentioned large particles, sinking toward the bottom of the
molten pool because of their higher density and higher melting point
with regard to the Ti-6Al-4V as a binder. However, there is obvious
exposure of WC particles on the MMC surface, as shown in Fig. 6(a, c, e)
which represent the morphology of series 1. This is to be expected as
the molten pool size is small and WC particles are large. Thus, the
molten pool has no ability to provide adequate space for the WC par-
ticles.
The MMC quality plays an important role in fabricating the large-
scale industrial high-performance components. Meanwhile, the laser
C. Qi, et al. Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572

Fig. 1. SEM micrograph of pre-placed powder. (a) Ti-6Al-4V; (b) WC.

cladded MMC coating performance is significantly affected by the Table 1

cladding layer morphology and defects, such as porosity and crack. It The experiment parameters of laser cladded Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC layers.
could be concluded that homogeneous morphology is formed with the Series Case Laser Scanning Beam Heat Pre-placed
addition of Ti-6Al-4V powder in the pre-placed powders, as evident power speed diameter input powder layer
from Fig. 6(b, d, f). However, the cross-sections of series 1 present ir- (W) (mm/s) (mm) (J/
regular shapes, which can be known in Fig. 6(a, c, e). During laser mm2)
cladding, the unstable molten pool is created, which is attributed to the 1 1 800 14 3 19 Pure WC
combination of rapid melting and solidification. Under these circum- 2 1100 12 3 31
stances, the lifetime and convection movement of the molten pool have 3 1400 10 3 47
a synergetic effect on the coatings morphology. During the laser clad- 2 4 800 14 3 19 WC + Ti-6Al-4V
ding process of series 1, the direct interaction between the laser beam 5 1100 12 3 31
and WC powder without protection has a high tendency to obtain 6 1400 10 3 47
melted large WC particles and reduces the energy absorption of sub-
strate. Hence, there is a decrease in the size and lifetime of the molten
pool, which contributes to disarrange the coatings morphology. Be- 3.2. The microstructure and porosity
sides, the higher the percentage of large particles present, the more
uneven the coatings profiles will be. Before microstructure discussion, it is essential to perform the XRD
Meanwhile, obstruction of convection movement due to large WC analysis on the Ti-6Al-4V/WC coatings with and without addition of
particles in the coatings should also be considered under these condi- pre-placed TC4 powder. The XRD results of Ti-6Al-4V, WC, series 1 and
tions. The coating shape is associated with the flow characteristics of series 2 are presented in Fig. 7. The overall phase identification of series
the molten pool which are prevailingly controlled by the Marangoni 1 and series 2 shows high similarity, which is attributed to the same
flow. With increasing heat input, the melted substrate increased, which phase before experiments. It can also be concluded that upon adding
results in a more sufficient convection to obtain a stable molten pool. It WC particles, the number of corresponding phase to WC is increase. The
can be seen that with increasing specific heat input, the geometric comparison of phase between experiment materials and coatings in-
profile of the coating changes from sharp to be smooth, as shown in dicates that some new phases are observed such as: W2C, W and TiC.
Fig. 6(a, c, e). In addition, the Marangoni convention for mixing the During the laser cladding process of Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC coatings, TiC
particles was also more effective in the cases with higher heat input. is easily formed from the reactions between WC and Ti because of the
high chemical affinity of Ti for C. Thus, the Ti in the molten pool

Fig. 2. . The distribution of pre-placed powder layer. (a) Series 1; (b) Series 2.

3
C. Qi, et al.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup for the process.
Fig. 4. Equipment of laser cladding experiments.
actively steals carbon from the WC particle in order to form lower free
energy titanium-carbon liquid, this mechanism in turn releases free W
and C atoms into the system thus dissolving the WC particle. The
Fig. 5. (a) BSE image of the Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC layer; (b) Element distribution of the Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC layer.
4
Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572
following reactions, which is estimated by the free energy calculation,
occur according to the thermodynamic data of WC and Ti [25].
2WC + Ti → W2C + TiC (1)
W2C + Ti → 2 W + TiC (2)
WC + Ti → TiC + W (3)
Especially, reaction (3) is the sum reaction of reactions (1) and (2).
The Gibbs Free Energy change (ΔG) of reaction (1) is negative as the
temperature increasing, whereas the reaction of WC with Ti is likely to
occur during laser heating process. However, the ΔG of reaction (2) is
positive with the temperature increasing. Thus, the W and TiC are
formed at the cooling process. The reactions between WC and Ti are
illustrated in Fig. 8. Furthermore, the above reactions and presence of
new phases can also be proved by the SEM and EDS analysis. Fig. 9
displays a BSE micrograph showing a typical WC particle in MMC after
laser cladding treatment. It is important to note that around the WC/Ti
reaction zone, there are some reaction products with different bright-
ness. The EDS detection of region B and C were performed to demon-
strate the reactions model which is mentioned above. The results prove
that the phase of brighter region is W2C and the darker region is TiC.
From results shown in Fig. 6, it can be concluded that the higher
heat input leads to more well-formed coating due to more adequate
convection. The microstructure plays an important role in the de-
termination of the quality and mechanical properties of the coatings.
Fig. 10(a–b) present the macro-scale SEM morphology showing the
cross-sections of the representative samples with higher heat input to
investigate the effect of pre-placed powder layers on the microstructure
of coatings. The bonding regions of coatings show that there is an ex-
cellent metallurgical combination between the coating and the Ti-6Al-
4V substrate. As it is observed in Fig. 6, Fig. 10(a) also shows the large
WC particles in the sample without protection of WC powder from laser
irradiation, implying that MMC coatings fabricated with series 1 are
irregular in comparison with the series 2. Meanwhile, the different
microstructure at the bottom of coatings with a different gray appear-
ance (marked A, B, C) is given in Fig. 10(c–d), where it can be seen that
microstructure of Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC coatings is composed of co-
lumnar structure (spot C), inter-dendrites (spot B) and acicular struc-
ture (spot A). However, it must be emphasized that there are differences
in microstructure between samples processed with different powder
layers, which is attributed to the laser absorption of Ti-6Al-4V molten
pool. During laser cladding process with pure WC particles (series 1),
the relatively high laser absorption of WC particles appears as a rea-
sonable explanation for reducing the energy received by molten pool.
By minishing the molten pool size and subsequently shortening the
solidification time, therefore, the columnar grain size and inter-den-
dritic spacing in series 1 would decrease compared to that in series 2.
C. Qi, et al.
Fig. 6. The micrograph view of MMC coatings. (a) Case 1; (b) Case 4; (c) Case 2: (d) Case 5; (e) Case 3; (f) Case 6.
Fig. 7. XRD patterns of Ti-6Al-4V, WC, series 1 and series 2.
The energy experienced by the WC particles in series 1 is adequate to
cause surface melting of these particles. Therefore, the carbon con-
centration at the bottom of series 1 is higher than that of series 2, be-
cause the melted WC particles offer an opportunity for dissolution of C
Fig. 8. The reactions model between WC and Ti.
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Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572
into the bottom of molten pool, which can be proved by the element
concentration shown in Table 2. Fig. 10(e–f) shows the microstructure
in the center of laser cladded Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC layers with different
pre-placed powder which mainly consists of blocky structure (spot D),
continuous structure (spot F) and striated structure (spot E). It should
be noted that there are little differences of solute distribution and
temperature gradient between the samples, indicating the presence of
similar microstructure.
The element quantification for different regions in the Ti-6Al-4V/
WC MMC coatings is shown in Table 2. Among all the test points, the C
concentration of series 1 is higher compared with the coating modified
with Ti-6Al-4V + WC powder (series 2). This is attributed to the higher
energy absorbed by WC particles in series 1, which promotes the re-
action between WC and TC4. Generally, the C concentration at the
bottom (marked A, B, C) of coatings is higher than that in the center
(marked D, E, F), which can also be proved by Table 2. The content of Ti
and W in the bright-white matrix (marked C and F) is much higher than
that in the others, indicating the presence of W released from WC phase.
The combination of EDS and XRD results reveal that inter-dendrites,
acicular, blocky and striated structure contain the same phase, TiC.
One of the main drawbacks of the MMC coatings is the presence of
porosity. Thus, it is necessary to study the influence of pre-placed
powder layers on porosity formation. Fig. 10 indicates that several
spherical pores appear at the bottom of Case 6, which is not detected in
C. Qi, et al. Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572

Fig. 9. (a) SEM micrograph obtained in BSE mode of a particle and surrounding reaction zone; (b) EDS results of region B; (c) EDS results of region C.

Fig. 10. (a) Macro-scale SEM morphology of

Case 3; (b) macro-scale SEM morphology of
Case 6; (c) microstructure of the localized
region marked in (a); (d) microstructure of
the localized region marked in (b); (e) mi-
crostructure of the localized region marked
in (a); (f) microstructure of the localized
region marked in (b); (g) microstructure of
the localized region marked in (f).

6
C. Qi, et al. Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572

Table 2 Case 3. To confirm this, porosity characterization of longitudinal sec-

Element quantification of the different regions in coatings (the analysis points tion is performed by scanning electron microscopy, which is shown in
are shown in Fig. 10). Fig. 11. It allows us to conclude that the pores are mainly concentrated
Series Points Atomic concentration (%) near the bottom of CL in both samples processed with and without pre-
placed Ti-6Al-4V coverage layers. Basically, chemical reactions be-
C Al Ti V W tween carbon and atmospheric oxygen leading to the formation of
porosity should take place because the WC starts to partially melt and
1 A 34.65 04.86 56.71 01.18 02.61
B 34.20 02.89 60.86 00.93 01.13 generate carbon under excessive heat input hence favoring trapped CO
C 11.53 08.24 72.34 02.00 05.89 and CO2 in the bottom part of coatings due to the rapid cooling.
D 37.92 04.42 53.67 01.64 02.34 Furthermore, there are obvious pores, crack and combination be-
E 37.50 01.39 56.77 00.63 03.70
tween different WC powders in the large WC particles, which is not
F 13.46 04.85 70.93 03.65 07.11
observed in series 1, as shown in Fig. 11(c). Under the above-mentioned
2 A 23.30 07.13 65.80 01.61 02.16 interaction between laser and WC particles, the melted WC particles
B 24.31 07.26 64.89 01.89 01.66
C 09.57 09.08 73.60 02.41 05.35
tend to cluster and adhere with each other, which results in the pre-
D 35.27 04.54 56.43 01.30 02.47 sence of a combination line. Meanwhile, due to large volumes of melted
E 36.45 05.04 54.12 02.03 02.36 WC, the reaction product derived from WC and retained oxygen is
F 12.00 08.55 68.86 02.39 08.20 presumably embedded in the agglomerated WC droplet, and the pores
in WC particles are easy to produce. Cracks are generated at the stress
concentration in the Ti-6Al-4V /WC coatings owing to the large

Fig. 11. (a) Longitudinal section of Case 3; (b) Longitudinal section of Case 6; (c) SEM image of the localized region marked in (a); (d) SEM image of the localized
region marked in (b); (e) SEM image of the localized region marked in (c); (f) SEM image of the localized region marked in (d).

7
C. Qi, et al. Optics and Laser Technology 119 (2019) 105572

Fig. 12. (a) Measured microhardness of Case 3; (b) Measured microhardness of Case 6; (c) Microhardness distribution of Case 3 and Case 6.

discrepancy between the thermal expansion coefficients of Ti-6Al-4V [26]. Moreover, the microhardness value of the CL processed under the
and WC. Fig. 11(c) shows that crack is originated from the WC reaction pre-placed Ti-6Al-4V and WC powder is gentler than that under pure
layer and propagates along the near-interface of WC particles, which is WC particles, which could be attributed to the uneven distribution of
ascribed to the poor plastic deformation of WC particles. It is obvious hard carbide due to the insufficient diffusion of element C.
that the reaction layer width of WC particles in series 1 is approxi-
mately 6 μm, which is relatively larger than that in series 2 (2 μm). This 4. Conclusions
is attributed that excessive melting of WC provides an opportunity for
diffusing W and C into Ti-matrix, which occurs just around the WC A comprehensive and comparative study has been performed to
particles. investigate appropriate pre-placed powder layers for Ti-6Al-4V/WC
composite coatings. The detailed conclusions obtained from this dis-
cussion can be summarized as follow:
3.3. Microhardness
(1) Under the identical experiment circumstance and parameters, it has
Another quality characteristic of the Ti-6Al-4V/WC MMC coatings
been determined that there are obvious overlarge WC particles and
could be defined as the microhardness of the samples. During the mi-
particles exposure in the coatings without pre-placed Ti-6Al-4V
crohardness tests, the HV1 indentations are made at 0.3 mm intervals
powder, which is not detected in the coatings with addition of Ti-
from the substrate up to the top of CL and the WC particles with ex-
6Al-4V. Meanwhile, by protecting WC particles with coverage of Ti-
cessively high hardness are avoided. Especially, the more high-density
6Al-4V powder and increasing heat input, the geometric profile of
points are tested to reduce the errors of microhardness data on the CL.
MMC coatings tends to be smooth.
The result of microhardness conducted on the longitudinal section of
(2) There is a large discrepancy between the microstructure of the
both samples is shown in Fig. 12 and Table 3, analyzing the difference
cladding layers with different pre-placed powder (WC powder and
in hardness among substrate, HAZ and cladding layer, where it can be
Ti-6Al-4V/WC powder). During the laser cladding process new
seen that the average hardness of HAZ is dramatically higher than the
phases are formed: TiC, W and W2C. TiC phase are present because
substrate. This increase is likely to be attributed to the localized me-
of the reaction between WC and Ti matrix. Whereas, the W is
tallurgical changes that occur in the HAZ associated with the rapid
mainly concentrated in the Ti matrix.
heating and cooling above the α-β phase-transition temperature of this
(3) The porosity is mostly concentrated near substrate surface in both
specific alloy but below its melting point. It also can be found that a
coatings. Moreover, the large volumes of agglomerated WC droplets
massive increase of microhardness is detected for Ti-6Al-4V /WC
provide an opportunity for the presence of pores, crack and com-
coatings in comparison with Ti-6Al-4V substrate. Generally, the addi-
bination line in solidified large WC particles.
tion of WC particles (3000HV) in the Ti-6Al-4V (350HV) should theo-
(4) These coatings fabricated by laser cladding process have the ad-
retically result in an improvement of samples hardness. Therefore, a
vantage that the hardness of heat affected zone and cladding layers
significant increase of the microhardness is noticed from 350 HV to 445
is expected to increase with the addition of WC powder. Meanwhile,
HV and it can be explained by the presence of hard phases motioned
the addition of pre-placed TC4 powder can improve the homo-
previously. The coating hardness is enhanced compared to the sub-
geneous distribution of WC particles and diffusion of element C,
strate, not only from the presence of WC particles, but due to the for-
which are related to the hardness in the coatings due to the
mation of TiC, re-crystallised WC, W2C and W within the clad matrix

Table 3
Hardness values of the cladding layers.
Point 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Microhardness of Line 1 (Case 3)/HV1 773 395 420 412 426 428 396 346 352
Microhardness of Line 2 (Case 3) /HV1 397 978 464 413 423 413 384 344 359
Average microhardness of Case 3/HV1 585 687 442 412 424 421 390 345 355
Microhardness of Line 3 (Case 6) /HV1 465 542 394 408 421 421 382 347 355
Microhardness of Line 4 (Case 6) /HV1 522 481 387 448 419 415 408 351 360
Average microhardness of Case 6/HV1 493 511 391 428 420 418 395 349 358

8
C. Qi, et al.
formation of carbide.
Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the
National Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Technology Research
Center Innovation Fund of China (COMAC-SFGS-2017-36736) and the
Foundation of the Graduate Innovation Center, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics (No. kfjj20180604).
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.optlastec.2019.105572.
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