Porous TiO2 ceramic coatings with high contents of Si and P were fabricated on a Ti6Al4V alloy using hybrid processing of laser surface melting (LSM) and microarc oxidation (MAO). The effect of LSM pretreatment on the growth behavior and mechanical properties of the MAO coating was studied. The results showed that the MAO coating on LSM pretreatment Ti6Al4V (LSM-MAO) had quite different surface morphologies, thickness, and compositions compared to the MAO coating on as-received titanium alloy. Grain refinement and dislocation in the LSM-treated Ti6Al4V alloy provided extra energy and more numbers of discharge channels during the MAO process. LSM–MAO coating exhibited a more uniform pore distribution, relatively small pores, and larger thickness compared to the MAO coating. The LSM-MAO coating had higher hardness and better wear resistance than the MAO coating. LSM is deduced to be an appropriate and efficient pretreatment method for achieving a high-quality MAO coating on titanium alloy.

In this study, the ceramic coating was prepared on Ti6Al4V alloy by scanning micro-arc oxidation (SMAO). The growth features of SMAO coating were investigated by combining the voltage and discharge variation. The result shows that a higher working voltage is obtained during SMAO treatment owing to additional resistance from the electrolyte column. As the SMAO goes on, the discharge region moves to the electrolyte column edge, exhibiting an annular shape. The current density with Gaussian distribution is observed between the stainless-steel tube (cathode) and titanium substrate (anode), which causes the SMAO coating to show a higher thickness in the middle and lower on both sides. Similar to traditional MAO, the SMAO coating has an enhancement in the thickness, pore size and Si content with increasing oxidation time, but coating degradation occurs in the later stage of SMAO. The SMAO coating mainly consists of amorphous SiO₂, rutile and anatase phases.

The laser-induced hybrid hardening process integrates laser quenching and electromagnetic induction heating to overcome traditional heat treatment limitations, enhancing the depth and properties of hardened layers for applications like wind turbine bearings. This study uses Box–Behnken design (BBD) experiments to analyze key process parameters and develops response surface methodology (RSM) and whale-optimization-algorithm-optimized back-propagation neural network (WOA-BPNN) models for prediction and optimization. The WOA-BPNN model outperforms the RSM model, achieving superior predictive accuracy with R² values exceeding 0.995 for both depth and hardness, with a root mean square error (RMSE) for depth of 0.099 mm and of 1.734 HV_0.3 for hardness, and with mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 0.697% and 0.7867%, respectively. The WOA-BPNN model provides an effective and reliable framework for optimizing laser-induced hybrid hardening, improving production efficiency and extending component life for industrial applications.

To address the issue of surface grain coarsening in laser-induction hybrid phase transformation of 42CrMo steel, this study investigated the effects of four pretreatment processes (quenching–tempering (QT), laser-induction quenching (LIQ), laser-induction normalizing (LIN), and laser-induction annealing (LIA)) on the austenite grain size and wear resistance after laser-induction hybrid phase transformation. The results showed that QT resulted in a tempered sorbite structure, resulting in coarse austenite grains (139.8 μm) due to sparse nucleation sites. LIQ generated lath martensite, and its high dislocation density and large-angle grain boundaries led to even larger grains (145.5 μm). In contrast, LIN and LIA formed bainite and granular pearlite, respectively, which refined austenite grains (78.8 μm and 75.5 μm) through dense nucleation and grain boundary pinning. After laser-induction hybrid phase transformation, all specimens achieved hardened layer depths exceeding 6.9 mm. When the pretreatment was LIN or LIA, the specimens after laser-induction hybrid phase transformation exhibited surface microhardness values of 760.3 HV0.3 and 765.2 HV0.3, respectively, which were 12 to 15% higher than those of the QT- and LIQ-pretreated specimens, primarily due to fine-grain strengthening. The friction coefficient decreased from 0.52 in specimens pretreated by QT and LIQ to 0.45 in those pretreated by LIN and LIA, representing a reduction of approximately 20%. The results confirm that regulating the initial microstructure via pretreatment effectively inhibits austenite grain coarsening, thereby enhancing the microhardness and wear resistance after transformation.