Laser processing of Fe based bulk amorphous alloy coating on zirconium

Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS™), a commercially available laser-based additive manufacturing technique, was employed for the processing of Fe-bulk amorphous alloy (Fe-BAA) coating on zirconium. SEM analysis revealed an amorphous–crystalline mixed phase composite microstructure of the coating. Crystalline phase was dispersed in an amorphous matrix. Moreover, considerable mixing of the Fe BAA in the zirconium substrate was noticed. The Fe BAA coatings showed 800% increase in hardness and decrease in normalized wear volume was ~ 30 times compared to the control Zr substrate. During the wear testing in 3.5% NaCl solution, Fe BAA coatings showed evidence of fretting corrosion. Overall, our results demonstrate that laser processing can be used to deposit amorphous coatings on Zr substrate.