Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing
Volume 13, Number 6, December 2006, Page 1
Corresponding author: Junbo Liu, E-mail: junboliu0525@163.com
PTA clad (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
/γ-Fe in-situ ceramal composite coating
Junbo Liu
1)
, Limei Wang
2)
, and Jihua Huang
3)
1) Department of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, WeiFang University, Shandong WeiFang 261041, China
2) Laboratory and Equipment Administration,WeiFang University, Shandong WeiFang 261061, China
3) School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and technology, Beijing 100083, China
(Received 2006-02-07)
Abstract: A wear-resistant (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
/-Fe in-situ ceramal composite coating was fabricated on the substrate of 0.45wt%C carbon
steel by a plasma transferred arc cladding process using the Fe-Cr-C elemental powder blends. The microstructure, microhardness
and dry-sliding wear resistance of the coating were evaluated. The results indicate that the microstructure of the coating consisting of
(Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
primary phase uniformly distributed in the -Fe and the (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
eutectic matrix was metallurgically bonded to the
0.45wt%C carbon steel substrate. The microstructure of the coating had the visible epitaxial growth character from substrate to coat-
ing. The coating, indehiscent and tack-free, had high hardness and appropriate gradient. It had excellent wear resistance under the dry
sliding wear test condition.
Key words: plasma transferred arc cladding; (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
/-Fe; coating; microstructure; wear-resistance
1. Introduction
Fabricating a high-performance wear resistant
coating on the surface of tribological components with
appropriate surface engineering technology is one of
the most efficient approaches to enhance the tribolog-
ical performance for many moving mechanical com-
ponents from both economic and technological points
of view. Among the widely used surface engineering
technologies, laser cladding, plasma transferred arc
(PTA) cladding, flame spray and plasma spray can
produce a relatively thicker coating [1-6]. PTA pos-
sesses high temperatures and the PTA cladding
process is easy to operate and not related to surface
reflectivity of the base material. These features impart
the PTA an expectation as the unique heat source of a
new surface modification technology. PTA cladding
process represents a very good alternative to
above-mentioned technologies and much work on this
has been conducted [7-10].
The (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
is well known for its excellent
combination of high hardness, excellent wear resis-
tance as well as good corrosion and oxidation resis-
tance, so it has been widely used as the reinforcing
phase in the ceramal composite coatings. The ceramal
composite coating with hard and wear resistant
(Cr,Fe)
7
C
3
as the reinforcing phase and the ductile
-Fe as the matrix would be expected to have out-
standing wear resistance and toughness. In this paper,
PTA cladding technology was adopted to produce
(Cr,Fe)
7
C
3
/-Fe in-situ ceramal composite coating on
the 0.45wt%C carbon steel substrate. The microstruc-
ture of the coating was characterized by optical mi-
croscopy (OM), scanning electron microscope (SEM),
energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS), and X-ray
diffraction (XRD). The wear resistance of the coating
was evaluated under dry sliding test conditions at
room temperature.
2. Experimental
PTA cladding process was carried out on the DRF-1
PTA cladding system. The optimized PTA cladding
parameters are:
plasma gas flux: Ar 3 L/min;
feeding gas flux: Ar 2.5 L/min;
powder feeding rate: 30 g/min;
working electric current: 120 A;
working voltage: 30 V;
scanning speed: 350 mm/min.
The Fe-Cr-C alloy, with an average particle size
ranging from 70-140 m was selected as the precursor
material for fabricating the (Cr, Fe)
7
C
3
/-Fe ceramal
composite coating by the PTA cladding process. A