Abstract:This study aimed to effectively reduce the cracking susceptibility of the laser clad coating by enhancing the environmental temperature during laser cladding, and reveal the residual stress distribution in different depths of the coating. The TiNi/Ti2Ni-based coatings were prepared on Ti6Al4V by laser cladding at different environmental temperatures of 25, 400, 600 and 800 °C. The changes in residual stress along the depth of the coatings were investigated in detail by the nanoindentation method. Results showed that the average residual stress of 2.90 GPa in the coating prepared at 25 °C was largest. With the increase in environmental temperature, the average residual stress was reduced to 1.34 GPa (400 °C), 0.70 GPa (600 °C) and 0 GPa (800 °C). For all the coatings, the residual stress was increased with increasing the distance from the coating surface. Enhancing the environmental temperature can effectively reduce the cracking susceptibility of the coatings.

Key words: laser cladding; coating; microstructure; environmental temperature; cracking susceptibility; residual stress; nanoindentation