Effect of Ni content on stainless steel fabricated by laser melting deposition

Abstract The novel stainless steel +  x  wt.% Ni ( x  = 0, 3.05, 6.10, 9.15) specimens were successfully fabricated by laser melting deposition, aiming at investigating the influence of Ni content on stainless steel structure and property. The effects of Ni content on phase compositions, microstructure, microhardness, wear and electrochemical corrosion resistance of as-deposited stainless steel were studied systematically using XRD, OM, SEM, microhardness tester, friction-wear tester and potentiodynamic polarization measurement, respectively. Experimental results showed that with the increase of Ni content, the constituent phase of the as-deposited specimen changed from ferrite phase (specimen for x  = 0) to austenite phase (specimen for x  = 9.15). The microstructure growth followed the principle of dendrite growth. However, the dominant microstructure varied from equiaxed dendrite to columnar dendrite with increasing Ni content. Phase transition from ferrite phase to austenite phase with the addition of Ni content resulted in the decrease of microhardness value from 643HV to 289HV. Meanwhile, the wear resistance of as-deposited specimens decreased gradually with the increasing of Ni content, which might be attributed to the fact that the wear resistance is proportional to microhardness according to Archard's law. It was noted that corrosion resistance of as-deposited stainless steel was extremely improved with the increase of Ni content. The higher Ni content specimen (specimen for x  = 9.15) exhibited the best corrosion resistance among the tested specimens based on corrosion rate, which was one order of magnitude lower than that of the lower Ni content specimens (specimens for x  = 0, 3.05).