Laser cladding of FeCoCrNi high-entropy alloy on Ti-6Al-4V alloy: Microstructure, phase transformation and bonding region

Abstract

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have shown considerable promise from both a scientific and an application perspective due to their outstanding comprehensive properties. In this study, an equiatomic FeCoCrNi HEA is used as input material for laser cladding on Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The HEA coating is characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to investigate the bonding region, element distribution and microstructure evolution. The results show that the HEA coating is mainly composed of face-centered cubic (FCC) phase and body-centered cubic (BCC) phase, precipitating a small amount of (Fe, Cr)-rich phase and (Ni, Ti)-rich phase. Otherwise, the bonding region, which is between coating and substrate, is emphatically concerned in this paper. The bonding region is formed by the convection zone which is resulted from the density difference of HEA and TC4. In addition, the convection in molten pool plays a key role in the morphology of bonding region.