Investigation into Micro-Hardness and Wear Resistance of 316L/SiC Composite Coating in Laser Cladding

In order to improve the performance of the cladding layer, this study used the Taguchi orthogonal design to investigate the influence of laser power, scanning speed, gas flow, and SiC powder ratio on the micro-hardness and wear volume of the cladding layer. The results indicate that the SiC powder ratio was the major factor that had the main impact on the micro-hardness and wear volume of the cladding layer. The contribution of SiC powder ratio on the micro-hardness and wear volume are 92.08% and 79.39%, respectively. Through signal to noise ratio conversion and combining grey relational analysis, the multiple objectives optimization was attained. With the target of maximizing the micro-hardness and minimizing the wear volume simultaneously, grey relational analysis was applied to obtain the optimal processing parameters set and predict the corresponding grey relational grade. The error rate was 5.3% between the prediction and experimental validation. This study provides the guidance for optimizing multiple goals at the same time using grey relational analysis about the coating properties deposited by laser cladding in actual industrial applications. It provided theoretical basis for the processing parameters optimization with targeting the micro-hardness and wear resistance.