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.