ORIGINAL ARTICLE Tailoring corrosion resistance of laser-cladded Ni/WC surface by adding rare earth elements Sayeed Mohammed 1 & Ravi Shanker Rajamure 2 & Zhe Zhang 1 & Prabu Balu 3 & Narendra B Dahotre 2 & Radovan Kovacevic 1 Received: 14 February 2018 /Accepted: 21 May 2018 # Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The corrosion is a major limiting factor for steel in the harsh environments and can be controlled by depositing protective passive coatings. Nickel-based alloy cladding of steel offers a solution by enabling better wear and corrosion resistance, and high bonding strength. The laser surface cladding of steel was conducted using a high-power direct diode laser. Layers of tungsten carbide in Ni (40% Ni-60% WC) combined with 1 and 2% lanthanum oxide (La 2 O 3 ) and cerium oxide (CeO 2 ) were deposited on ASTM A36 steel substrate. The X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were employed to study the morphology, microstructure, and phase evaluation of the cladded layer. Further, anodic polarization on the laser-cladded coupons in 3.5 wt% NaCl shows significant enhancement of the corrosion resistance. The addition of La 2 O 3 and CeO 2 improves the corrosion resistance and the hardness of the clad. Keywords Corrosion resistance . Laser cladding . Ni-WC . Rare earth elements 1 Introduction Steel is most widely used material in engineering applications but its hardness, wear, and corrosion resistance limit its appli- cations in the extreme conditions. The choice of corrosion control depends on economics, the environments, and the technical limitations. The protective coating is the most pop- ular method to control the corrosion resistance [1]. With the advances in the technology and the emphasis on the reduced cost, the laser has received significant attention in the areas of high-value component repair such as drill bits, turbine and compressor blades, the rollers for rolling mills, and the engine pistons [2]. For example, the oil and gas industry uses drill bits which are constantly subjected to harsh environments and special conditions. The wear and gouging accelerate the dete- rioration of the properties and structure of the bits [3]. The laser cladding is widely used to solve such problems by im- proving hardness, wear, and corrosion resistance resulting in improved service lifetime. The conventional laser sources are Nd:YAG, fiber, CO 2 , and diode laser. In the high-power direct diode laser, the beam size and shape can be varied. Kennedy et al. [4] found that diode laser has better modal stability than CO 2 or Nd:YAG laser. Zhu et al. [5] reported that the porosity of welds by diode laser was less as compared to that of CO 2 laser welding. Due to its high power, the laser cladding pro- duces metallurgically bonded coatings having little distortion of the substrate [6]. The development of high-power diode laser opened new frontiers for metal hardening, welding, and cladding. The laser cladding was an ideal solution for the substrates of complex geometry. The substrate can be de- signed for toughness and strength and the coating for the hardness, wear, and corrosion resistance [7]. Although the first working laser was invented by Maiman [8] in 1960, the laser cladding was not applied until the 1970s by Gnanamuthu at Rockwell International Corporation, California [9]. Corrosion is an electrochemical phenomenon which results in deterioration of physical properties of the material due to reaction with its environment. The corrosion is a diffusion- * Radovan Kovacevic kovacevi@lyle.smu.edu 1 Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75205, USA 2 Laboratory for Laser Materials Processing and Synthesis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203, USA 3 Coherent Inc., Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-018-2227-z