Novel near Nano-Scale Overlays for High Wear Applications

Wear damage is a major problem in industry and its direct cost in industrialized nations varies from 1% to 4% of gross national product.  New crack resistant glass forming steel alloys with high hardness and wear resistance were developed to address these issues, allowing thick crack free overlays to be deposited onto soft ductile backing steels by a spray cladding process.  The resulting dual hardness structure exhibits near nano-scale microstructures which exhibit high hardness and wear resistance combined with significant toughness.  In contrast to conventional wear surfaces deposited by weld overlay, the spray cladding process starts with a liquid melt and does not utilize prefabricated powder / wire, can be applied at much higher deposition rates, and offers a new approach for the formation of wear resistant surfaces for the production of wear plates, cladded rolls, or other complex wear surfaces.