Abstract
In this paper, Titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) powder
and boron carbide (B4C) powder metal matrix composites
(MMCs) were embedded on titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V) substrate
using laser metal deposition (LMD). The laser power was
varied between 800 W and 2400 W at an interval of 200 W
while all other processing parameters were kept constant. The
maximum capacity of the laser system is 3.0 KW which
provides beam size of 4 mm for the control characterization of
the deposited samples. The microstructural properties of the
deposited samples were profound with α and β (intermetallic
phase of α+β) of titanium alloy and boron carbide particles.
The optical microscope (OM) was employed to characterise the
grain sizes and microstructures. The microhardness were
characterized using the Vickers’ hardness indenter in which
the microhardness of the composites revealed an increase in
the samples as the laser power increases. The hardness were
observed to be between 371Hv and 471Hv for the cladded
samples when compared to the substrate with approximately
360Hv.