Microwave Cladding: A New Surface Engineering Technique for Developing Uniform Microstructure

Vol. 1 No. 2

Year: 2011

Issue: February-April

Title: Microwave Cladding: A New Surface Engineering Technique for Developing Uniform Microstructure 

Author Name: Dheeraj Gupta, A.K. Sharma 

Synopsis: 

Demand for production of durable mechanical components at lower cost has been on the rise.  Mechanical components subjected to aggressive conditions suffer from degradation of surface properties through several modes like wear, corrosion, and oxidation. The challenge to the industries is to develop wear resistant coatings with good surface properties in a shorter processing duration. In the present work an innovative process has been explored for development of metallic cladding. A Ni based cladding has been developed on austenitic stainless steel substrate (SS—316) by the exposure of microwave irradiation. The microwave hybrid heating technique has been used for the development of cladding. The developed clads have been characterized through X—ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE—SEM), and Vicker’s microhardness. The clad of thickness ~1mm has been developed using microwave radiation of power 900W at 2.45GHz frequency for the duration of 360s. The XRD results revealed the precipitation of chromium carbide in the developed clad with other phases of NiSi and FeNi3. The   transverse section of developed cladding shows good metallurgical bonding with substrate by partial mutual diffusion of elements. The clad is free from cracks and has significantly less porosity (1.01%). The average microhardness of developed clad is ~300Hv.