Effects of Heat Treatment Condition and Counter Materials on the Wear Behavior of Laser Direct Energy Deposited Fe-8Cr-3V-2Mo-2W Alloy

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the wear performance of laser direct energy deposited Fe-8Cr3V-2Mo-2W alloy under various wear environments, in terms of different heat treatment conditions. Ball on disk tribology tests were performed using high-carbon steel and zirconia balls as counter materials. The wear rates of the alloy depended significantly on both the wear sliding speed and the wear load. Microstructural observations of the worn surface and the wear debris indicated intensive tribo-oxidative wear that was presumably responsible for the strong dependency of the wear rate on the wear sliding speed. Regardless of the type of counter materials, the alloy in the as-built state had better wear performance than the alloy with heat treatments. Therefore, the use of the alloy without post heat treatment would be favorable to obtain long-term durability of the alloy in severe wear environments. The wear tests with two different counter materials of high-carbon steel and zirconia showed the high-carbon steel counter material had a higher wear rate than the zirconia. This was thought to be due to that strong third-body abrasive actions of the high-carbon steel counter material, evidenced by the severe abrasive wear of the counter material.