Microstructural and Wear Properties of Annealed Medium Carbon Steel Plate (EN8) Cladded with Martensitic Stainless Steel (AISI410)

Abstract

Limited work on the wear properties of martensitic stainless-steel weld clads initiated this work which included investigations on microstructural and wear properties of cladded AISI 410 (filler wire)/EN 8 plates (substrate). Three layers of martensitic stainless steel (AISI 410) were deposited using metal inert gas (MIG) welding on medium carbon steel (EN 8) achieving a 51.5 ± 2.35 HRC of top layer. The elemental and phase fractions of the cladded layers indicated 98% martensite phase and retained austenite (2%). About 40% dilution was observed between EN 8 and the first weld layer. The results of tests carried out on pin on disc tribometer revealed an enhancement of anti-wear life of the martensitic weld cladded EN 8 by three times that of uncladded EN 8. The uncladded EN 8 plate suffered severe damage and high wear, leading to its failure at 478 s. The failure of the uncladded EN 8 sample was identified by the occurrence of high vibration of the pin on disc tribometer which ultimately stopped the tribometer. On the other hand, the cladded EN 8 sample continued running for 3600 s, exhibiting normal wear. After the tribo test, the surfaces of the pins of both cladded and uncladded EN 8 were analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and 3D profilometer. The surface characterization of tribo pairs indicated ploughing and galling to be the primary wear mechanisms. The average grain size of top and middle layer was in the range of 2–3.5 µm, while the base metal showed 5.02 µm mean grain size, resulting in higher hardness of clad layers than base metal, also favoring better wear resistance of the cladded EN 8 samples as compared to uncladded EN 8 samples.