Microstructure and elevated temperature wear behavior of induction melted Fe-based composite coating

Fe-based composite coating prepared onto the component of guide wheel using ultrasonic frequency inductive cladding (UFIC) technique has been investigated in terms of microstructure, phase constitutions, microhardness and elevated temperature wear behavior by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Vickers microhardness tester and ball-on-disc wear tester. The results indicated that the primary phase in the coating contained austenite γ-Fe, eutectic γ-Fe/(Cr,Fe)2B, boride (Cr,Fe)2B and precipitation enriched in Mo. The average microhardness of the coating was 760 ± 10 HV0.2, which was three times higher than that of the substrate. With increasing temperature, the friction coefficients of the coating and high-chromium cast iron decreased gradually while the wear rates increased during dry sliding wear condition. The relative wear resistance of the coating was 1.63 times higher than that of the high-chromium cast iron at 500 °C, which was ascribed to the hard borides with high thermal stability uniformly embedded in the coating and the formation of dense transfer layer formed onto the worn surface. The high temperature wear mechanism of the coating was dominated by mild abrasive wear. The study revealed that Fe-based composite coating had excellent high temperature wear resistance under dry sliding wear condition.