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In view of the difficulties such as coarse microstructure, performance degradation and excessive residual stress during the preparation of Ti-6Al-4V layers by laser cladding, the microstructure and mechanical properties of such a Ti-6Al-4V coating were optimized and improved based on the plastic deformation effect caused by laser shock peening (LSP). The characteristics of phase composition, changes in microstructure and morphology, grain plastic deformation and the influence of mechanical properties of the laser clad Ti-6Al-4V coating were studied pre- and post-LSP. The results indicate that the α/α' phase content increases and the β phase content decreases after LSP. The β phase and acicular martensite α' phase is refined significantly and divided, and the basket structure presents a more dense and staggered distribution after LSP. Laser cladding causes the grains in the Ti-6Al-4V coating to undergo plastic strain and the degree of grain refinement was significantly improved following LSP. The microhardness at the top of the laser clad Ti-6Al-4V coating increases from 23 to 30% compared after LSP. At the same time, the LSP promotes the transformation of residual tensile stress to compressive stress on the surface of the laser clad Ti-6Al-4V coating, with an average residual compressive stress value of about 339 MPa. This study provides theoretical and methodological references for optimizing the microstructure and properties of Ti-6Al-4V coatings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal strain response behaviour of SiCp/Cu composites prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) and pressureless infiltration were studied. The CTEs decreased with increasing reinforcement content. For a fixed SiC content, pressurelessly infiltrated specimens exhibited lower CTE than the SPS specimens. The CTEs of SPS specimens agreed well with the ROM model while the CTE of pressurelessly infiltrated specimens was close to Kerner's predictions. The strain hysteresis loops were developed during thermal cycling. The residual stress increased with increasing reinforcement content. The SPS specimens experienced large dimensional change due to the weak interfacial bond while the pressurelessly infiltrated specimens showed negligible strain hysteresis. The interfacial condition has a pronounced effect on the strain hysteresis behaviour. The improved interfacial bond was beneficial to the decreasing of the CTE and improving the dimensional stability of the composite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SiCp/Cu composites with high reinforcement content (56–65 vol.-%) were fabricated by spontaneously infiltrating copper alloy into porous SiC preform obtained by powder injection moulding. The main influencing factors of the preparation of the preform and the infiltration behaviour of various preforms were studied. The results indicate that the viscosity increases with an increase in powder loading or decreases with an increase in particle size. The feedstocks with bimodal mixture exhibit low viscosity due to the improvement in packing efficiency. When small particles or bimodal mixture with large size ratio were used, the preforms were difficult to be fully infiltrated. The preforms debound in air exhibit lower infiltration rate than the ones debound in vacuum due to the reduction of porosity and the poor wettability between the oxidised layer and copper alloy. Kinetic analysis on the infiltration curves yielded activation energies of 253 kJ mol–1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]