Investigation on microstructural characterization of in situ TiB/Al metal matrix composite by laser cladding

The aluminum matrix composite (AMC) coating reinforced with TiB was prepared utilizing in situ synthesized technique by laser cladding. Microstructural characterization and dry sliding wear behavior of in situ TiB/Al metal matrix composite were studied by SEM, XRD, TEM and Pin-on-disc friction and wear tester. The phase structure of the composite coating consists of α-Al, TiB, Al3Ti and Al3Fe. It has been found that the shape of in situ synthesized TiB is mainly taken on micro-magnitude lump and nano-magnitude whisker. Owing to B27 structure of TiB, the TiB has an anisotropy axis of growth, which results in the TiB strip and whisker preferring grown along [0 1 0] direction. It is worth to notice that the novel microstructure inside of TiB is particle and strip Al5Fe2 phase and definite crystallographic relationship between the Al5Fe2 phase and TiB has been determined by selected area diffraction pattern. The wear tests results show that the composite coatings can only improve wear resistance at the lower applied load (below 26.7 N), but at higher applied load (26.7–35.6 N) the wear resistance behavior of the coating is worsened due to the fracture and pullout of reinforcement phase.