Microstructural Analysis of Additively Manufactured Corrosion Resistant Duplex
Stainless Steel Clads on Carbon Steel Substrate
Pratik Murkute
1
, Somayeh Pasebani
2,3
and O. Burkan Isgor
4*
1.
Materials Science, MIME, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
2.
Manufacturing Engineering, MIME, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
3.
Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute (ATAMI), Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
4.
School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
* Corresponding author: Burkan.isgor@oregonstate.edu
The low carbon steel finds extensive applications due to high strength to cost ratio; however, due to its
low corrosion resistance, its service life is significantly reduced. On the contrary, the super duplex
stainless steels (SDSS) manifests superior pitting corrosion resistance (PREN >40)[1] in chloride
containing environments resulting in excellent service life. However, high SDSS cost limits its
applicability. Cladding corrosion resistant SDSS on low carbon steel (LCS) substrate is a plausible
solution to reduce the material costs while maintaining the performance level and the service life of the
component. In this research, additive manufacturing technique; powder bed fusion- selective laser
melting (PBF-SLM) was used to clad SDSS on LCS substrate. This study investigates the metallurgical
aspects of the PBF-SLM clads using the elemental area and line mapping modes of scanning electron
microscopy- energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS).
In this study, the LCS substrate was used in plate form (3 x 3 x 1/8 in
3
) (Fig.1b) and Sandvik’s gas
atomized SDSS powder feedstock [15-45 μm (D50=30 μm)] (Fig. 1c) was used as a cladding material.
Energy density (Fig. 1a) is the governing parameter for the clads. For all clads, PBF-SLM parameters
such as a laser power (P) of 200 W, hatch spacing (h=30 μm), hatch orientation (90
o
), powder layer
thickness (d=50 μm), and total thickness (T=500 μm) were maintained constant, and all clads were
produced at a laser scan speed ranging from 100-1000 mm/s, resulting in volumetric energy density
(VED: J/mm
3
) in the range of 133-1333 J/mm
3
.
After laser melting, the samples were prepared for EDS analysis using metallographic preparation
methods. The EDS line scans and area mapping were performed across the clad-substrate (SDSS-LCS)
interface for elemental analysis and area maps (Fig. 2a) show the contrast observed due to atomic weight
difference for Cr, Ni, and Fe elements. This contrast is due to the difference of the elemental atomic
weight in Cr, Ni-rich SDSS clad layer and Cr, Ni-deficient LCS substrate. Furthermore, the back
scattered emission (BSE) imaging mode of SEM was used to investigate the clad thickness
measurements. It was observed that increasing energy density had a positive impact of the clad
thicknesses. The maximum average clad thickness of 65.8 μm was achieved at the highest VED of 1333
J/mm
3
, whereas the lowest VED of 133 J/mm
3
resulted in the thinnest clads.
Figure 2(b) illustrates the EDS line scans for Cr content in SDSS clads at different energy density. It was
observed that the clads had lower chromium content than the feedstock powder (~25 wt. %) due to
evaporative losses experienced during laser melting process. Furthermore, at a higher energy density of
1333 J/mm
3
, the Cr content in the clad dropped to about 13 wt.%, and increasingly higher Cr contents
were measured in clads region with decreasing energy density, e.g., at E=133 J/mm
3
, clad showed Cr
content of ~24.8 wt. % which was very close to the SDSS feedstock powder composition. Albeit the Cr
2570
doi:10.1017/S1431927619013588
Microsc. Microanal. 25 (Suppl 2), 2019
© Microscopy Society of America 2019
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927619013588
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