Wear properties of compact graphite cast iron with bionic units processed by deep laser cladding WC

By simulating the cuticles of some soil animals, the wear resistance of compact graphite cast iron (CGI) processed by laser remelting gets a conspicuous improvement. In order to get a further anti-wear enhancement of CGI, a new method of deep laser cladding was used to process bionic units. By preplacing grooves then filling with WC powders and laser cladding, the bionic units had a larger dimension in depth and higher microhardness. Fe powder with different proportions from 30% (wt.) to 60% (wt.) was added into WC before laser processing for a good incorporation with CGI substrate. The improved laser cladding units turned out to induce higher wear resistance in comparison with laser remelting ones. The depth of the layer reached up to 1 mm. The results of dry sliding wear tests indicated that the specimen processed by laser cladding has a remarkable improvement than the ones processed by laser remelting. It should be noted that the wear mass loss was essentially dependent on the increase in WC proportion.