EXAMINATION OF B4C-FeCrC COMPOSITE LAYER DURING DRY SLIDING USING STATISTICAL METHOD

Abstract

In this work, the surface of AISI 430 stainless steel was coated with a hyper-eutectic FeCrC and pure B4C powders using the plasma transferred arc (PTA) welding method. Further, the microstructure, microhardness, and abrasive wear resistance of the coated layer were evaluated in this work. Hard coating layers were formed between 750 HV and 1000 HV from the PTA melting coating process with high energy input (due to PTA). Due to the addition of FeCrC and B4C, the martensite, austenite, M-7(C-B)(3), M-23(C-B)(6), Cr(C-B), FeCr, Fe2B, Fe3C, Fe2C, SiC, and Fe-3(C-B) phases were formed in the coating layer which makes the layer very hard. The abrasive wear resistance of the coated layer was evaluated using the Taguchi method with L-16 mixed-level orthogonal index. Samples, wear distance (m), applied load (N), and abrasive grain size (grid) were chosen as input parameters. The mass loss due to wearing was evaluated based on the smaller the better. All input parameters significantly influence the wear, but the highest effect was found with the wear (slip) distance. Also, a linear regression equation was obtained to estimate the mass loss between the parameters and the levels used.