Powder Plasma Transferred Arc Welding of Ni-Si-B+60 wt%WC and Ni-Cr-Si-B+45 wt%WC for Surface Cladding of Structural Steel

Augustine Nana Sekyi Appiah; Oktawian Bialas; Artur Czupryński; Marcin Adamiak

doi:10.3390/ma15144956

Powder Plasma Transferred Arc Welding of Ni-Si-B+60 wt%WC and Ni-Cr-Si-B+45 wt%WC for Surface Cladding of Structural Steel

Materials (Basel). 2022 Jul 16;15(14):4956. doi: 10.3390/ma15144956.

Authors

Augustine Nana Sekyi Appiah¹, Oktawian Bialas², Artur Czupryński³, Marcin Adamiak¹

Affiliations

¹ Materials Research Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 18A Konarskiego Street, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
² Department of Engineering Materials and Biomaterials, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 18A Konarskiego Street, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
³ Welding Department, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 18A Konarskiego Street, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.

Abstract

Increasing demand for sustainable approaches to mining and raw material extraction, has prompted the need to explore advanced methods of surface modification for structural steels used in the extractive industry. The technology of powder plasma transferred arc welding (PPTAW), was used in this study as a surface modification technique to improve upon the abrasive wear resistance of structural steel grade EN S355. PPTAW process parameters, namely, plasma transferred arc (PTA) current and plasma gas flow rate (PGFR), were varied, and the effects of the variation were studied and used as criteria for selecting optimum conditions for further studies and parametric reproducibility. Two metal matrix composite (MMC) powders were used in the process, having compositions of Ni-Si-B+60 wt%WC (PG) and Ni-Cr-Si-B+45 wt%WC (PE). Microstructural observation under a scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed a dendritic, multi-directional microstructure consisting of partially dissolved primary tungsten carbide particles and secondary tungsten carbide precipitates within the MMC solid solution. The hardness of the surface layers was higher than that of a reference AR400 steel by more than 263 HV. Final surface layers obtained from the MMC powders had abrasive wear resistance up to 5.7 times that of abrasion-resistant reference AR400 steel. Alloying the MMC matrix with chromium increased the hardness by 29.4%. Under the same process conditions, MMC powder with 60 wt% WC reinforcement had better abrasive wear resistance by up to 45.8% more than the MMC powder with 45 wt% WC.

Keywords: PPTAW; SEM; abrasive wear; hardness; microstructure; precipitation; surface layer.

Grants and funding

This research was supported in part by the Polish Budget Funds for Scientific Research in 2022 as a core funding for R&D activities in the Silesian University of Technology—Grant No. 10/100/BK22/0024, Grant No. 10/100/BKM22/0036 and Grant No. 10/100/BKM22/1110.