Laser surface alloying of Al with Cu and Mo powders
SL Pityana, ST Camagu, J Dutta Majumdar

Laser surface alloying was used to develop copper and molybdenum aluminides by injecting premixed copper and molybdenum powder particles into a laser-generated melt pool on an aluminium substrate. Different laser processing parameters were used to produce the composite thin layers on the substrate material. The microstructure and phase constituents of the composite layer were studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Xray diffraction (XRD) techniques. Experimental results show that the matrix structure of the metal matrix composite layer consists of ?-CuAl2 and MoAl5. Surface hardness was increased by a factor of 3.
Keywords: laser surface alloying, metal matrix composites, intermetallic phases.