Laser clad corrosion protection for mild and harsh environments

Corrosion of one type or another occurs in almost every environment and high performance corrosion protection methods are often too expensive to be economically viable. This work examines the performance of protective layers of Inconel 617, laser clad in the form of salvaged machining chips, to protect a corrosive substrate from both mild and harsh environments. The clad layers are investigated for microstructure and phase composition and polarisation measurements used to determine their corrosion resistance in neutral and acidified NaCl electrolyte solutions. The clad microstructure was discovered to be columnar dendritic, with an atypical upper layer. However, neither this nor any dilution by the substrate compromised the corrosion resistance of the Inconel 617, and the clad layer provided very good corrosion protection. The results confirm the viability of using this method as a low cost corrosion protection method for both mild and harsh environments. © 2012 Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.