Comparative Study of Plasma Cladded Fe-Based Composite Hardfacings with In Situ Synthesized Cr and Ti Carbide Reinforcement

This study aimed to compare the X3CrNiMo17-13-3 stainless steel based plasma transferred arc (PTA) cladded hardfacings, reinforced with the in-situ synthesized Cr and Ti carbides. Carbon black and either pure Cr, pure Ti, or TiO2 were utilized as reinforcement precursors (the respective hardfacings are further referred to as Cr+C, Ti+C and TiO2+C). The pre-placed mixtures of matrix and reinforcement precursor powders were remelted by the plasma transferred arc, applying the preliminarily optimized process parameters (95 A, 22 – 24 V, 0.2 mm/s). As a reference, the unreinforced stainless steel hardfacing was used. The carbide reinforcement was successfully in-situ synthesized in all the hardfacings. The Cr + C hardfacing exhibited the largest average hardness (556 ± 29 HV1), while the TiO2 + C hardfacing had the largest average Young’s modulus (156.3 ± 19.7 GPa). The Cr + C and Ti + C hardfacings demonstrated the 2.3 and 2.1 times higher resistance to abrasive wear than the reference hardfacing. The TiO2 + C hardfacing showed 1.5 times lower wear resistance than the reference hardfacing presumably due to a lack of the reinforcement and a lower strain hardening ability.