Electron beam cladding for improvement of wear resistance of stainless steels

Stainless steel components exposed to mechanical stresses are subjected not only to corrosion, but to abrasive wear. There are several possibilities for enhancing the wear resistance of stainless steels; however, such processes are very often associated with a reduction in corrosion resistance. This paper presents an electron beam surface treatment technology to significantly improve the wear resistance of austenitic steels (e. g. X6CrNiMoTi17-12-2) and duplex steels (e. g. X2CrNiMoN22-5-3), without a negative influence on the corrosion behavior. Fe- and Co-additive wires were deposited thermally by electron beam cladding. The cladding layers produced were free of defects such as cracks and pores, and were well metallurgical bonded to the base materials. Microstructural analysis, hardness measurements, wear tests and corrosion tests were carried out. The wear rate k was reduced by a factor of 100 compared to the base materials for electron beam cladding with Fe-based wire and by a factor of 10 with Co-based wire. Corrosion resistance was preserved for the Fe-based cladding layers and slightly increased (by a factor of 3) for the Co-based cladding layers.