Effects of isothermal heat treatment on nanostructured bainite morphology and microstructures in laser cladded coatings

Laser cladding and subsequent isothermal heat treatments have been used to fabricate nanostructured bainitic coatings. XRD has been used to determine the kinetics of bainitic transformation process. OM, SEM and TEM have been used to characterize the morphology and microstructures at different stages of transformation. The results showed that at the initial stage of bainitic transformation, the bainite sheaves are short and thin at a relatively low transformation temperature. The fully transformed bainitic microstructure obtained at a relatively high temperature present a textured morphology. The chaotic growth orientations of the sheaves and the island like of the retained austenite have been observed at the low transformation temperature. A simple model has been established to describe the microstructures and the bainite sheaves growth evolutions during the isothermal holding at the different transformed temperatures. The morphology and distribution of the bainite in the coatings were analyzed by using the nucleation and growth rate of bainitic transformation theories, which is consisted with the experiment results.