Mechanical and Tribological Characteristics of Cladded AISI 1045 Carbon Steel

Abstract

This study introduces a newly developed cladding device, through printing AISI 1045 carbon steel as single and double layers onto American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) H13 tool steel plate. In this study, the mechanical and tribological characteristics of single and double layers were experimentally investigated. Both layers were polished first and then subjected to ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM) treatment to improve the mechanical and tribological characteristics. Surface roughness, surface hardness and depth profile measurements, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the polished and UNSM-treated layers were carried out. After tribological tests, the wear tracks of both layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The surface roughness (R_a and R_z) of the single and double UNSM-treated layers was reduced 74.6% and 85.9% compared to those of both the as-received layers, respectively. In addition, the surface hardness of the single and double layers was dramatically increased, by approximately 23.6% and 23.4% after UNSM treatment, respectively. There was no significant reduction in friction coefficient of both the UNSM-treated layers, but the wear resistance of the single and double UNSM-treated layers was enhanced by approximately 9.4% and 19.3% compared to the single and double polished layers, respectively. It can be concluded that UNSM treatment was capable of improving the mechanical and tribological characteristics of both layers. The newly developed cladding device can be used as an alternative additive manufacturing (AM) method, but efforts and upgrades need to progress in order to increase the productivity of the device and also improve the quality of the layers.

Keywords: AISI 1045 carbon steel; additive manufacturing; hardness; roughness; tribology; ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification.

Figure 1

A newly developed cladding device (a) and various views of the rotation system (b–d).

Figure 2

Pictures of fillers with four different diameters: 5.5 mm (a), 4.5 mm (b), 3.5 mm (c) and 2.5 mm (d).

Figure 3

SEM images of the top surface of (a) single and (b) double layers.

Figure 4

Cross-sectional SEM images of the single (a,b) and double (c,d) layers.

Figure 5

SEM images of the polished and UNSM-treated surfaces of the single (a,b) and double (c,d) layers.

Figure 6

Comparison of surface roughness results of the as-received, polished and UNSM-treated surfaces of the single and double layers.

Figure 7

Comparison of surface hardness (a) and hardness with respect to depth of the polished and UNSM-treated single (b) and double (c,d) layers.

Figure 8

XRD patterns of the polished and UNSM-treated single and double layers (a). Primary peak (b), secondary peak I (c) and secondary peak II (d).

Figure 9

Friction coefficient results of the polished and UNSM-treated single (a) and double (b) layers.

Figure 10

Wear rate results of the polished and UNSM-treated single and double layers.

Figure 11

SEM images and mappings of the wear track for the polished (a,a1,c,c1) and UNSM-treated (b,b1,d,d1) surfaces for both single and double layers.