Effect of laser cladding on forming microhardness and tensile strength of YCF101 alloy powder in the different full lap joint modes

Abstract Fe-based alloy is widely used in the manufacturing industry to benefit from their low price, abundant reserves, and excellent properties. The structure of the cladding layer can be changed by different full lap joint modes. In this study, the YCF101 alloy specimens were successfully fabricated by different full lap joint mode. The laser confocal microscope was used to investigate the microstructures. The results show that the internal microstructure homogeneity was improved and the grains were refined. The microhardness and tensile strength were tested by microhardness tester and universal tester respectively. The hardness results indicate that microhardness value is narrowly increased and stationarity is increased remarkably in contrast to the specimens under different full lap joint modes. The tensile strength of full lap joint mode5 (277 MPa) is 60.1% higher than that of a full lap joint mode 1 (173 MPa). The cushion period between plastic deformation and fracture of the part fabricated by mode5 is longer. The mode 1 and 2 are a brittle fracture, while mode 3, 4 and 5 are a ductile fracture.