Microstructure and properties of Cu/TiB2 wear resistance composite coating on H13 steel prepared by in-situ laser cladding

In this paper, microstructure and properties of Cu/TiB2 composite coating from Ti, B, Cu pure powders on H13 steel prepared by in-situ laser cladding were studied. The experimental results showed that, in laser cladding process to manufacture coatings, Ti and B powders react to form dispersed TiB2 phase in the Cu matrix. The Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis showed that, a high-strength metallurgical bond is formed between coating and substrate. The surface microhardness of coating is found to reach 650 HV0.5, which was significantly higher than that given by the substrate, and gradually decreases with the depth into the substrate. When abrasive wear testing at temperature of 500 °C, the wear resistance of the Cu/TiB2 coating was higher than that of the substrate by many times, and it significantly reduces with increasing (Ti + B) content. This implies that the in-situ synthesis of Cu/TiB2 composite coating prepared by laser cladding can improve the friction and wear properties of H13 steel. This coating can be applied for manufacturing die and mold, especially hot working die and high pressure die casting die. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd