Experimental Investigations of Ni/La 2O3 Composite Micro-Cladding on AISI 1040 Steel through Microwave Irradiation

AISI 1040 steel is widely used material in most of industrial manufacturing applications. In order to meet the increasingly demanding stringent operating conditions, the functional surface of the concerned components which are made of AISI 1040 are modified in such a way that they can sustain in the aggressive environment. In this paper cladding of Ni/La 2O3 composite powder (particle size ~40µm) has been done through microwave irradiation. This processing has been explored for enhancement of surface properties of AISI 1040 steel. The favourable property of microwave processing is that the volumetric nature of heating of the material results in uniform thermal gradient, which yields uniform material properties in the processed materials. The developed Ni/La 2O3 composite clad surfaces on AISI 1040 steel substrate was characterized using scanning electron microscope for surface morphology. The average thickness was observed to be ~500 µm and the developed Ni/La 2O3 composite clad surface shows good metallurgical bonding with the AISI 1040 substrate material. The mechanical property such as hardness were also measured and found to be improved.