Investigation of the Microstructure and Selected Properties of Laser Treatment of HVOF Thermal Sprayed Coatings onto Magnesium Alloy Substrate

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate and compare the effect of three different scanning rate laser beam heat treatments on WC-CrC-Ni coatings to identify if this method would increase the properties of coatings deposited by HVOF onto magnesium alloy substrate. The paper presents a preliminary investigation of the microstructure and selected properties of coatings deposited by thermal spraying HVOF using commercially available WC-CrC-Ni powder and then laser treated with different values of the laser scanning rate (YLS-4000). After laser heat treatment, the coatings were investigated regarding microstructure features and selected properties such as microhardness and dry sliding wear. The results reveal that the porosity of the laser-treated coatings had reduced in all samples while microhardness and surface roughness (Ra) strongly improved after laser treatment.