Effect of Tungsten Carbide Morphology, Quantity, and Microstructure on Wear of a Hardfacing Layer Manufactured by Plasma Transferred Arc Welding

Hardfacing layers on mild steel substrates were successfully manufactured using a plasma transferred arc welding (PTAW) process to combine tungsten carbide powder and binder metal. Three morphological types of tungsten carbide powder were employed: spherical, fused angular, and mixed powder. The effects of both the morphology and the quantity of tungsten carbide powder on the wear property of the products were determined using a dry sand wheel abrasion test. The results revealed that two conditions effectively increased the wear resistance of the hardfacing layers: the use of spherical tungsten carbide and the use of an increased quantity of tungsten carbide. Moreover, the formation of an interfacial layer of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) between the tungsten carbide and binder metal, and the relationship between the microstructure of the IMC layer and its wear property were also investigated. It was confirmed that, in general, preferential wear occurs in the binder metal region. It was also unveiled that the wear property improves when interfacial IMC bands are formed and grown to appropriate width. To obtain a sound layer more resistant to wear, the PTAW conditions should be adequately controlled. In particular, these include the process peak temperature and the cooling rate, which affect the formation of the microstructure.

Investigation of Single Layer and Bilayer of Plasma Transferred Arc (PTA) Coatings of Fe-Cr-V Powder

This paper presented an investigation result of single layer and bilayer of PTA coating of two different Fe-Cr-V powder commercially available and an improvement of the surface hardness by adding 35% of WC. In case of single layer, the microstructure was uniform across the thickness and also the hardness, while microstructure of the bilayer was obviously separated between interlayer and topcoat. The bilayer coating microstructure was changed, and approaching the topcoat, the microstructure was similar to single layer. The hardness of bilayer was decreased due to the dilution. After adding WC into the powder, the microstructure was changed and it could be seen that WC particles distributed across the coating. The hardness was increased due to dilution of some WC. Moreover, in all cases, PTA process offered coating with no crack and no re-precipitated with only small pores. However, adding WC could result in bigger pore size.

Matrix Composite Coatings Deposited on AISI 4715 Steel by Powder Plasma-Transferred Arc Welding. Part 3. Comparison of the Brittle Fracture Resistance of Wear-Resistant Composite Layers Surfaced Using the PPTAW Method

This article is the last of a series of publications included in the MDPI special edition entitled “Innovative Technologies and Materials for the Production of Mechanical, Thermal and Corrosion Wear-Resistant Surface Layers and Coatings”. Powder plasma-transferred arc welding (PPTAW) was used to surface metal matrix composite (MMC) layers using a mixture of cobalt (Co3) and nickel (Ni3) alloy powders. These powders contained different proportions and types of hard reinforcing phases in the form of ceramic carbides (TiC and WC-W2C), titanium diboride (TiB2), and of tungsten-coated synthetic polycrystalline diamond (PD-W). The resistance of the composite layers to cracking under the influence of dynamic loading was determined using Charpy hammer impact tests. The results showed that the various interactions between the ceramic particles and the metal matrix significantly affected the formation process and porosity of the composite surfacing welds on the AISI 4715 low-alloy structural steel substrate. They also affected the distribution and proportion of reinforcing-phase particles in the matrix. The size, shape, and type of the ceramic reinforcement particles and the surfacing weld density significantly impacted the brittleness of the padded MMC layer. The fracture toughness increased upon decreasing the particle size of the hard reinforcing phase in the nickel alloy matrix and upon increasing the composite density. The calculated mean critical stress intensity factor KIc of the steel samples with deposited layers of cobalt alloy reinforced with TiC and PD-W particles was 4.3 MPa⋅m12 higher than that of the nickel alloy reinforced with TiC and WC-W2C particles.