Metallic cladding through microwave energy of the mixture of Ni and 15% SiC powder on AISI 304: A green approach in surface engineering

Abstract

In the present study, an attempt was made to develop surface cladding on AISI 304 steel by utilizing a mixture of Ni and 15% SiC powder via microwave energy. The microwave cladding process on the AISI 304 was carried out in the in-house developed set-up on the microwave. The microwave cladding process was carried out on 900 W with a 2.45 GHz frequency for 120 seconds irradiation time. SEM images showed a uniform cladding layer and cladding surface with SiC wt.% of 15 and irradiation time of 120 seconds. The energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) pattern of AISI 304 cladding surface coating with Ni and 15% SiC. EDX pattern showed the element weight percent of Ni, Fe, Cr, Si, O, and C is 58%, 22%, 4.98%, 5.97%, 1.45%, and 7.6%, respectively. EDX pattern for the cladding layer showed the element's weight percent of Fe, Ni, Si, C, O, and Cr is 46.34%, 27.3%, 11.12%, 7.9%, 4.2%, and 3.14%, respectively. XRD of the cladding surface shows the presence of Fe, FeNi₃, NiSi₂, Cr₂C, Ni₃C, Fe₂SiO₄, and SiC phases. The average hardness of the cladding surface and cladding layer was found to be about 324 HV and 306 HV, respectively. The hardness of the cladding surface was improved by about 46.60%. Fatigue strength of AISI 304 without and with the microwave cladding of the mixture of 15% SiC and Ni powder was found to be 210 MPa and 245 MPa, respectively, at the cyclic load of 1  × 10⁷ cycles. Though, a micrograph of AISI 304 with the microwave cladding of the mixture of 15% SiC and Ni powder shows the fatigue wear, wear debris, and plastic flow of SiC particles after the wear testing.