Directed energy deposition of tungsten carbide particle-enhanced shell laminated structures.

Metal matrix ceramic composites have high hardness, good wear and corrosion resistance, but the high percentage of WC ceramic composites are prone to cracking, which leads to limited applications. It was proposed to prepare 316L and 60 wt.% WC/NiCu shell stacked structure composites with single layer thicknesses of 0.4 mm, 0.6 mm, 0.8 mm and 1 mm, respectively, using directed energy deposition technique. The results show that the shell stacked structure consumes a large amount of fracture energy through toughening mechanisms such as ligament bridging, crack deflection, and microcracking to make the material better able to withstand the load, the hardness of the metal substrate is enhanced by the diffusion of WC particles and soft and hard phase elements. The shell stacked structure, with a single layer thickness of 0.6 mm, demonstrated excellent resistance to crack damage when subjected to a compressive load of 18000N. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]