Design and Development of Electrode Coating for Hardfacing Application

The use of hardfacing has increased rapidly as an economic way to enhance the life of industrial components which have been exposed to harsh environments. The design and development of hardfacing consumables is still a research area with immense potential and challenges. The present work reported in this paper is an attempt to develop hardfacing electrodes with higher wear resistance and mechanical properties. In this process six types of ferrochrome based harfacing electrodes were developed and used to deposit hardfacing layers using manual metal arc welding process on low alloy steel plates. The mechanical and microstructural characterization of these hardfacing deposits was carried out and analyzed to assess the role of the flux ingredients in development of the structure property relationships. The chemical composition of the deposits was analyzed to assess the role of different flux ingredients in controlling the weld deposit chemistry. Sliding wear tests were carried out to assess the wear behavior of the hardfacing deposits. This paper communicates the results of the expensive experimentation and analysis of the hardfacing deposits made using a scientific approach for designing and development of hardfacing manual metal arc welding electrodes using flux composition variation.