Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

In this study, the microstructure, hardness, and dry sliding wear behavior of the hardfaced layers made by a cored wire Fe-B-C-Ti alloy were investigated. St37 steel was used as the substrate and the deposition of the hardfaced layers was conducted by the flux cored arc welding (FCAW) process under single-, two-, and three-pass conditions. Dry sliding wear tests were performed by a pin-on-disk apparatus, based on ASTM-G99, at room temperature (25⁰C) at the normal applied loads of 50, 100, and 150 N with a constant speed of 0.08 m/s for a sliding distance of 1000 m. The microstructural and phase analyses were carried out by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), respectively. The results showed that the hardfaced layer produced by the single-pass process contains TiC rectangular phase distributed within a matrix containing ferrite and the eutectic of (α-Fe₂B). But, the hardfaced layers produced by the two- and three-pass process contain TiB₂ hexagonal phase in addition to TiC, which prevents the formation of detrimental FeB phase around Fe₂B and reduces the number of micro-cracks. Moreover, the sample hardfaced by the three-pass process had the best wear resistance due to the greater hardness resulted from the higher amounts of TiC and TiB₂ phases. In addition, increasing the number of passes has led to the reduction of wear rate at all the three applied loads. At the applied load of 100 N, the wear mechanism for the all three hardfaced samples was an oxidation wear. However, at the applied load of 150 N, the wear mechanism was a combination of oxidation and delamination.
 

In the present investigation, A356-TiB₂/TiC composites with a various weight fractions (0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5%) were synthesized through a K₂TiF₆-KBF₄-Graphite (C) reaction system. Formation of TiB₂ and TiC particulates and their distribution are confirmed by various characterization techniques. The tensile properties such as ultimate strength, yield strength, young's modulus and percentage of elongation in addition to their failure behavior of these composites were studied at ambiance and high temperatures (100, 200 and 300⁰C). The increment in the volume fraction of the composite raises the hardness and the enhancement of hardness was reported up to 49% at 7.5% reinforced composite due to the strengthening effect. The density and porosity of fabricated composites were investigated. The rise in volume fraction of reinforcement phase declines the density and increase the porosity of composites. Further, the ultimate strength, yield strength, young's modulus is declining by raising the temperature. Result analysis illustrates that the 7.5% reinforced composite retaining the ultimate strength up to 84.4% and the ductility is raised by 27% at 300⁰C. Yield strength and young's modulus are also retained 74.31% and 71.09% respectively at the similar material and experimental conditions. The fracture surface analysis of the composites illustrates that, the ductile nature of failure appearance microscopically with the formation of fine dimples and voids on fracture surface at elevated temperatures. Cleavage facets and tear crumples observation indicates the brittle kind of failure at the ambient temperature. Findings from the experimental study provide the tensile behavior of the composites at the regular working temperature of the automobile engine piston.