Laser-coated CoFeNiCrAlTi high entropy alloy onto a H13 steel die head

High entropy alloys (HEA) offer the unique ability to tailor specific properties, such as wear resistance and corrosion resistance, for specific industrial applications. The purpose of this paper is to examine HEAs' ability to extend the life of forge punch die heads used in the forging industry. When a die head begins to crack or wear near the end of its fatigue life, it will either be repaired or discarded. The focus of our study is on the repair aspect of a damaged die head by laser-coating. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of an HEA (CoNiFeCrAlTi), which is laser-coated onto a damaged H13 steel die head. We determine the optimum coating condition by varying the laser fluence. We present the method used to select the HEA and the processing parameters during the laser-coating process. We examine the resulting surface and its elemental composition using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy, respectively, as well as its mechanical strength via Vickers hardness testing. Once the optimal laser-coating parameters were determined, a damaged H13 steel die head was resurfaced then laser-coated with a CoNiFeCrAlTi HEA and put into service, where we show that this repair method provides significant improvement in die head life.