Volume 11 Issue 2
Effect of CeO2 on Microstructure and Wear Resistance of TiC Bioinert Coatings on Ti6Al4V Alloy by Laser Cladding
Tao Chen, Defu Liu, Fan Wu and Haojun Wang
1College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
2State Key Laboratory of High Performance Complex Manufacturing, Changsha 410083, China
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
To solve the lack of wear resistance of titanium alloys for use in biological applications, various prepared coatings on titanium alloys are often used as wear-resistant materials. In this paper, TiC bioinert coatings were fabricated on Ti6Al4V by laser cladding using mixed TiC and ZrO2 powders as the basic pre-placed materials. A certain amount of CeO2 powder was also added to the pre-placed powders to further improve the properties of the TiC coatings. The effects of CeO2 additive on the phase constituents, microstructures and wear resistance of the TiC coatings were researched in detail. Although the effect of CeO2 on the phase constituents of the coatings was slight, it had a significant effect on the microstructure and wear resistance of the coatings. The crystalline grains in the TiC coatings, observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), were refined due to the effect of the CeO2. With the increase of CeO2 additive content in the pre-placed powders, finer and more compact dendrites led to improvement of the micro-hardness and wear resistance of the TiC coatings. Also, 5 wt % content of CeO2 additive in the pre-placed powders was the best choice for improving the wear properties of the TiC coatings.
Keywords:TiC bioinert coatings; laser cladding; CeO2; microstructure; wear resistance