The hardness, wear resistance and fracture toughness of nickel-based tungsten carbide coating will be improved by reducing WC size to nanometer scale. This is because the nano WC structure reduces the decarburization and decomposition of WC during laser cladding, reduces the brittle phases such as W2C and W, and at the same time, the nano particles at the grain boundary can prevent dislocation movement and recrystallization at high temperature, thus improving the overall performance of the nickel-based tungsten carbide coating.

Ni-WC coating reinforced by nano-WC was prepared by induction heating assisted laser cladding. The addition of nano-WC enhanced the distribution uniformity of carbide particles in the coating, refined the microstructure and improved the microhardness of the coating.