This study introduces a newly developed cladding device, through printing AISI 1045 carbon steel as single and double layers onto American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) H13 tool steel plate. In this study, the mechanical and tribological characteristics of single and double layers were experimentally investigated. Both layers were polished first and then subjected to ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification (UNSM) treatment to improve the mechanical and tribological characteristics. Surface roughness, surface hardness and depth profile measurements, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of the polished and UNSM-treated layers were carried out. After tribological tests, the wear tracks of both layers were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The surface roughness (Ra and Rz) of the single and double UNSM-treated layers was reduced 74.6% and 85.9% compared to those of both the as-received layers, respectively. In addition, the surface hardness of the single and double layers was dramatically increased, by approximately 23.6% and 23.4% after UNSM treatment, respectively. There was no significant reduction in friction coefficient of both the UNSM-treated layers, but the wear resistance of the single and double UNSM-treated layers was enhanced by approximately 9.4% and 19.3% compared to the single and double polished layers, respectively. It can be concluded that UNSM treatment was capable of improving the mechanical and tribological characteristics of both layers. The newly developed cladding device can be used as an alternative additive manufacturing (AM) method, but efforts and upgrades need to progress in order to increase the productivity of the device and also improve the quality of the layers.
Keywords: AISI 1045 carbon steel; additive manufacturing; hardness; roughness; tribology; ultrasonic nanocrystal surface modification.