Dry wear behaviors of wear resistant composite coatings produced by laser cladding

Using different proportional mixtures of Ni-coated MoS₂, TiC and pure Ni powders, new typical wear resistant and selflubricant coatings were formed on low carbon steel by laser cladding process. The microstructures and phase composition of the composite coatings were studied by SEM and XRD. The typical microstructure of the composite coating is composed of multisulfide phases including binary element sulfide and ternary element sulfide, γ-Ni, TiC and Mo₂C. Wear tests were carried out using an FALEX-6 type pin-on-disc machine. The friction coefficient and mass loss of three kinds of MoS₂/TiC/Ni laser clad coatings are lower than those of quenched 45 steel, and the worn surfaces of the laser cladding coatings are very smooth. Because of high hardness combined with low friction, the laser cladding composite coating with a mixture of 70% Ni-coated MoS₂, 20%TiC and 10%pure Ni powder presents better wear behaviors than the composite coating with other powder blends. The composition analysis of the worn surface of GCr15 bearing steel shows that the transferred film from the laser cladding coating to the opposite surface of GCr15 beating steel contains an amount of sulfide, which can change the micro-friction mechanism and lead to a reduced friction coefficient.