LAUSR

AISI-420 stainless steel is widely used to manufacture hydraulic and gas turbine components. The present work is concerned with microstructural studies of cobalt based clad developed through microwave energy in a microwave applicator. A domestic microwave oven was successfully used to develop clads at 2.45 GHz frequency. The developed clads were evaluated using optical metallography, scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to determine the microstructure, phases and elemental composition of developed surface. The microstructure study reveals that the developed clad shows good metallurgical bond between substrate without any interfacial cracks. XRD study confirms the presence of various complex metal carbides and intermetallics like Cr7C3, Cr3C2, M23C6, Cr2Ni3 which are formed during microwave heating. The average microhardness of the developed clad surface is 807 ± 96 HV, which is 132% higher than that of unclad surface (348 ± 7 HV).