During the material preparation process, the magnetic field can act with high intensity energy on the material without contact and affect its microstructure and properties. This non-contact processing method, which can change the microstructure and properties of material without affecting the shape and size of products, has become an important technical means to develop new materials and optimize the properties of materials. It has been widely used in scientific research and industrial production. In recent years, the magnetic field assisted processing of difficult-to-deform materials or improving the performance of complex and precision parts has been rapidly and widely concerned by scholars at home and abroad. This paper reviews the research progress of magnetic field regulating the microstructure, and properties of solid metal materials. The effects of magnetic field-assisted heat treatment, magnetic field assisted stretching, and magnetic field independent treatment on the microstructure and properties of solid metal materials are introduced. The mechanism of the magnetic field effect on the properties of metal materials is summarized, and future research on the magnetic field effect on solid metal has been prospected.

The surface of 17-4PH martensitic stainless steel was laser-cladded with Ni60 and Ni60+nano-WC composites and a comprehensive investigation was conducted of the microstructure and wear mechanism. The findings demonstrate that despite the added nano-WC particles being fused and dissolved during laser cladding, they still lead to a reduction in grain size and a decrease in crystallographic orientation strength. Furthermore, the dissolution of nano-WC makes the lamellar M₂₃C₆ carbides transform into a rod or block morphology, and leads to the CrB borides becoming finer and more evenly dispersed. This microstructural evolution resulted in a uniform increase in hardness and wear resistance, effectively preventing crack formation. When the nano-WC addition increased to 20 wt.%, there was a 27.12% increase in microhardness and an 85.19% decrease in volume wear rate compared to that of the pure Ni60 coating. Through analysis of the microstructure and topography of wear traces, it can be inferred that as the nano-WC addition increased from 0 wt.% up to 20 wt.%, there was a gradual transition from two-body abrasive wear to three-body abrasive wear, ultimately resulting in adherent wear.

The excess heat generated during the laser additive manufacturing process is prone to cause coating defects; a water-cooled substrate can effectively remove the excess heat and improve the hardness of the coating. In this study, the effects of water-cooled substrate on the microstructure and hardness of laser additive manufactured nickel-based coatings were investigated by experimental and numerical simulations. The results showed that the water-cooled substrate decreased the size of columnar crystals and increased the number as well as the length of secondary dendrite crystals at the bottom of the nickel-based coatings. There was also a noticeable increase in the size of equiaxed grains and the quantity of the solid solution in the middle of the coatings. The hardness value of the coating increased at the water velocity of 200 mL/s and 500 mL/s and finally decreased at 700 mL/s. A finite element model was established by ABAQUS software to numerically simulate the temperature field of the laser additive manufactured nickel-based coating with the water-cooled substrate. The results revealed significant differences in the temperature distribution of the coatings with different velocities. As the water velocity increased, the peak temperature at the center of the coating’s molten pool gradually decreased. In addition, the cooling rate of the specimens increased with the application of the water cooling, leading to a more concentrated temperature distribution near the laser heat source.

A FeCrMoNiCuBSiC metallic glass coating was designed and then deposited by the high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) spraying technique. X-ray diffraction, a scanning electron microscope, and a microhardness tester were applied to characterize the phase, microstructure, and mechanical properties of the coating. The amorphous phase was the main phase in the coating, and crystal phases were almost undetectable in the XRD results. The coating had a dense structure (the porosity was 1.47 ± 0.32%) and high Vickers microhardness (848 ± 22 HV_0.3). The wear behavior of the coatings sliding against WC-Co was studied with a pin-on-disc wear test system and was compared with that of 316L stainless steel. The coating improved the wear resistance of the steel by around 7–9 times at different sliding speeds. As the sliding speed was increased, the wear loss rate of the steel obviously increased, yet the loss rate of the coating decreased first and then increased. This happened because the contact flash temperature induced by friction increases with the sliding speed, which results in oxidative behavior and crystallization events in the coating. The dominating wear mechanism of the coating is fatigue wear combined with oxidative wear.