Wear and Microstructural Characteristics of Colmonoy-4 and Stellite-6 Additive Layer Deposits on En19 Steel by Laser Cladding

The present study aims to produce an additive layer (cladding) on En19 steel using colmonoy-4 and stellite-6 alloys to create more complex surfaces for resisting wear and improving their physical properties. The microstructure of the deposited layer and the interface of the substrate to the clad surface were analyzed. The dilution of the En19 steel by cladding layers was studied to estimate the crack-free fusion boundaries. It was identified that even though the heat input was the same, the dilution percentage was different for both clad alloys. The dilution of 3.2% for Colmonoy-4 alloy and 4.1% for Stellite-6 alloy is due to the difference in their chemical composition. The interface microstructure of Colmonoy-4 was formed with a planar bonding line without any migration zones between the base metal and clad alloy. But the interface of stellite-6 alloy’s clad layer was created with a river flow by a zig-zag surface. Both the clad deposits were found to have friction coefficients inside the range of 0.49–0.68. Colmonoy-4 alloy clad deposit achieved better wear resistance compared to Stellite-6-based clad deposits. This might be due to differences in the sample's interaction with the counter surface. In the case of colmonoy-4 cladding, Ni and Fe intermixing zone were formed at the interface up to 50 µm, whereas in stellite-6 clad alloy, it was 80 µm. The wear resistance of the colmonoy-4 cladding was better than the stellite-6 cladding. The wide and deep wear tracks were identified for the stellite-6 cladding surface.