AISI 304 Stainless Steel Coated with Stellite 6 Alloy

An effort is made to deposit Cobalt-based Stellite 6 powder having a regular spherical shape with diameters ranging between 15μm to 45μm on an AISI 304 rolled stainless steel substrate without any bond coat.The atmospheric plasma spray deposition process was adopted with additive manufacturing for three different types of coating thickness in the range of 74 μm, 128 μm, and 215 μm..The effect of coating thickness on metallurgical properties and corrosion resistance behavior was investigated. Optical microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to study the morphology of Stellite 6 coating. XRay Diffraction was used for structural analysis and to identify the phase formation. It was observed that the sample with 128 μm coating thickness provides the best resultconcerning micro hardness and micro structure characteristics whereas the sample with 215 μm coating thickness provides the best corrosion resistance property. The reasons for the deviation were investigated and the factors responsible for the deviation were assigned in this investigation.