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Tribology International 42 (2009) 745749

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Tribology International
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/triboint

The effects of welding processes on abrasive wear resistance for

hardfacing deposits
John J. Coronado , Holman F. Caicedo, Adolfo L. Gomez
Mechanical Engineering School, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia

a r t i c l e in fo

abstract

Article history:
Received 10 August 2007
Received in revised form
10 October 2008
Accepted 15 October 2008
Available online 29 October 2008

In this research, four kinds of welding deposits were evaluated, applied through two different welding
processes: ux cored arc welding (FCAW) and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). The other variable of
the tests was the deposited layers. The hardfacing deposits were evaluated using the dry sand-rubber
wheel machine according to procedure A of the ASTM G65 standard. Optical and scanning electron
microscopy was used for the characterization of the microstructure and worn surface of deposits. FCAW
welds presented higher abrasive wear resistance than the SMAW deposits. The hardfacing deposit
formed by uniformly distributed carbides rich in titanium presented the highest abrasive wear
resistance. Abrasive wear resistance was higher when three layers were applied, except for SMAW-D
deposit. It was not possible to get a clear relation between hardness and the abrasive wear resistance of
the deposits. The results showed that the most important variable to improve abrasion resistance is the
microstructure of hardfacing deposits, where the carbides act as barriers to abrasive particle cutting.
& 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Hardfacing
Abrasion wear
SMAW
FCAW

1. Introduction
The weld deposition of hardfacing alloys is employed in
agriculture tools, mining, sugar industry and others to increase
hardness and abrasive wear resistance of the mechanical
components. Abrasion wear occurs in contact situations between
two surfaces when one is considerably harder than the other [1].
Three abrasive wear mechanisms are observed using a scanning
electron microscopy (SEM): microcutting, microploughing and
wedge formation [2,3]. The abrasion resistance of materials
depends very much on the particles size [46]. Thus, its selection
is particularly important in the evaluation of abrasive properties.
A strong diminution of the abrasive wear rate happens when the
hardness of the material exceeds the hardness of the abrasive [7].
Several studies on the evaluation of abrasive wear resistance have
found that using hard deposits in welding processes is a good
alternative to recover parts under abrasive wear, as in the case of the
mining industry [7,8]. In other studies, which have used hard
coverings deposited on gray cast iron, have shown that abrasion
resistance is mainly due to the variation in chemical composition and
microstructure of the deposits, where the carbon content is a
determining factor in the carbide formation and the matrix of the

 Corresponding author. A.A. 25360. Universidad del Valle, Ciudad Universitaria

Melendez, Escuela de Ingeniera Mecanica, Edicio 351, Cali, Colombia.
Tel.: +57 2 3212133; fax: +57 2 3334899.
E-mail addresses: johncoro@univalle.edu.co, johnjairocoronado@yahoo.com
(J.J. Coronado).

0301-679X/$ - see front matter & 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.triboint.2008.10.012

deposits [9]. According to Zum Gahr [10] abrasive wear resistance can
be substantially improved by second phases embedded in a hard or
soft matrix. The present investigation aims to study four hardfacing
electrodes applied in two welding processes (used typically in the
sugar cane industry for recovery of worn elements) in terms of their
microstructure, hardness and abrasive wear resistance.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Materials
Four commercial welding electrodes were evaluated, applied
for two different welding processes: ux cored arc welding
(FCAW) and shielded metal arc welding (SMAW). In Table 1,
the chemical composition of each hardfacing for one and three
layers used in this study is presented. Variations in chemical
composition between layers were found due to dilution in the
substrate. The hardfacing was deposited on ASTM A36 carbon
steel plates, with dimensions of 152 mm  127 mm  15 mm,
preheated to 175 1C. Table 2 shows the chemical composition of
ASTM A36 steel. After deposition, the samples were cooled in air
and the hardfacing deposit plates were sectioned for wear test
(12.7 mm  25.4 mm  76.2 mm).
2.2. Abrasive wear test
The tests were carried out using the dry sand-rubber wheel
machine under ASTM G65 standard; with this test, the mass loss

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J.J. Coronado et al. / Tribology International 42 (2009) 745749

Table 1
Chemical composition of different hardfacing deposits.
Hardfacing

Deposited
layers

Cr

Mn

Mo

Si

Ti

FCAW-A

1
3
1
3
1
3
1
3

6.73
7.86
3.04
5.85
16.48
26.39
4.15
8.10

1.69
1.33
0.85
1.12
0.33
0.08
0.73
0.59

1.01
1.13
0.83
1.49
0.39
0.35
0.49
0.27

1.75
1.98
0.40
0.48
1.16
1.27
1.60
2.62

0.12
0.14
0.05
0.11
0.14
0.12
0.19
0.08

0.16
0.20
2.46
4.66

FCAW-B
SMAW-C
SMAW-D

Table 2
Chemical composition of ASTM A36 steel.
C

Si

Mn

Fe

0.25

0.56

0.06

0.07

0.76

Balance

of deposits can be measured. For this, the procedure standard A

was used, which is suitable for materials from medium to high
abrasion resistance. In this study, rounded quartz particles AFS
50/70 in constant ow, were used as abrasive. The normal load,
duration of the tests and wear distance for each hardfacing tested
were 130 N, 200 rpm and 4309 m, respectively. In Fig. 1, a
schematic representation of the abrasive wear machine used for
the tests is presented. The sand, when descending, makes contact
with the sample and the rubber wheel and, nally, the sample
mass loss is measured in an electronic scale.
In Table 3, the results of heat input, mass loss, abrasive wear
resistance and microhardness of the evaluated hardfacings are
presented. Microhardness values of the hardfacing deposits were
taken in a Vickers hardness testing, using 19.6 N (2 kgf) load. The
values of microhardness were different for the rst and the third
layer deposited. The electrode manufacturers recommend that the
heat input and current values be used in welding applications.

Fig. 1. Dry sand-rubber wheel machine.

Fig. 3. SEM of FCAW-A for single layer.

Table 3
Variables and performance of hardfacing deposits.
Welding process

Welding material

FCAW

FCAW

SMAW

SMAW

Deposited layers

1
3
1
3
1
3
1
3

Current (A)

250
250
250
250
100
100
130
130

Heat input (kJ/cm)

12.5
12.5
17.5
17.5
7.1
7.1
17
17

Mass loss (mg)

2563.33
2438.33
1206.67
779.33
3444.00
3079.33
4165.67
4395.00

Fig. 2. Microstructure of FCAW-A: (a) single layer; (b) three layers.

Abrasive wear
resistance (mg/m)
1.68
1.76
3.57
5.53
1.25
1.40
1.03
0.98

Micro hardness
Vickers (19.6 N)
695
678
597
667
470
610
632
626

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Fig. 4. Microstructure of FCAW-B: (a) single layer; (b) three layers.

Spectrum 1
Ti

Fe

Cr
Fe
Ti

Si

Mo

Ti
Mo

0
1
2
3
4
Full Scale 1866 cts Cursor: -0.216 keV (0 cts)

Cr Cr
6

Fe
7
keV

Fig. 5. EDS spectra showing the carbides in the microstructure of FCAW-B.

2.3. Microstuctural analysis

The samples were etched with kallings and observed in the
optical microscopy and SEM. Fig. 2(a) shows in the microstructure
of FCAW-A that a single layer was deposited, it presents twinned
martensite and the cracks propagated due to the brittleness of the
matrix. Fig. 2(b) shows the microstructure of FCAW-A deposited
using three layers; dendrites of austenite in a eutectic matrix can
be observed. Fig. 3 shows the microstructure of a single layer of
FCAW-A using SEM, which presents martensite in cells, surrounded by austenite. The high cooling rate of the rst layer
transformed the austenite into martensite due to direct contact
with the substrate, creating residual stress that caused the cracks
to form. The third layer was deposited on the previous layers still
at high temperature, which produced a slower cooling rate,
leading to austenite grain formation. In spite of the lower
microhardness of the third layer, it presented higher wear
resistance than the single-layer hardfacing due to crack propagation and fracture.
Figs. 4(a) and (b) show the microstructures of FCAW-B:
carbides can be seen uniformly distributed in eutectic matrix.
Fig. 5 shows energy-dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) of the carbides,
in which it is possible to identify ne carbides (14 mm) rich in
titanium with small fractions of iron, molybdenum and chromium. The volume fractions of the carbides were measured by
optical microscopy at a magnication of 100  and presented 14%
for the rst layer and 20% for the third layer. According to
Chatterjee et al. [9] molybdenum is a matrix hardening agent and
its wear rate could be reduced to about half of that of the

commercial hardfacing electrodes. Titanium is used in steel as an

alloy element, but in addition it forms carbides, as do chromium,
molybdenum, niobium and vanadium. As reported by Arikan et al.
[11] the addition of 0.38% titanium caused a 30% increase in
the abrasion resistance with respect to as-cast titanium free
15
Cr3Mo white cast iron. Higher volume fractions of the carbides
of FCAW-B with three layers produce higher abrasion resistance
than FCAW-B with one layer.
Figs. 6(a) and (b) show the microstructure of SMAW-C:
primary austenite dendrites can be seen in the eutectic matrix.
In Fig. 6(a) a discontinuous scratch is observed on the microstructure, in which the austenite grains are scratched, but the
eutectic matrix is not, indicating that austenite grains can be
preferentially cut during abrasion test. The carbon dilution in the
substrate avoided the formation of primary carbides of the type
M7C3 in the hardfacing deposits. The higher quantity of eutectic
matrix for SMAW-C with three layers produces higher abrasion
resistance than SMAW-C with one layer.
Fig. 7(a) shows the microstructure of the sample of SMAW-D
for one layer, which presents a martensitic matrix; while for three
layers, as shown in Fig. 7(b), a martensitic microstructure with
retained austenite in the grain boundaries was observed. The
retained austenite is a ductile phase that can easily be cut by
abrasive particles. This can explain the higher wear resistance
obtained by single layering than triple layering of hardfacing in
SMAW-D.

3. Results and discussion

The worn surfaces were observed under SEM and secondary
electrons were used to analyze these surfaces, to establish the
possible mechanisms of material removal. In Fig. 9, the surface
wear is presented for three deposited layers; Fig. 8(a) shows the
surface of FCAW-A, where microploughing is the main abrasive
micromechanism. Fig. 8(b) shows the surface of FCAW-B, which
presents microploughing, but the grooves were not deeper than
FCAW-A: this hardfacing deposit presented higher abrasion
resistance, because the large quantity of carbides rich in titanium,
uniformly distributed in the matrix, blocked the abrasive
particles. Fig. 8(c) shows the surfaces of SMAW-C and Fig. 8(d)
shows SMAW-D, where microcutting and wedge formation were
the main abrasive mechanisms: these deposits presented lower
abrasion resistance.
Fig. 9 shows the average value of mass loss of the four
hardfacings, with one and three deposited layers. The deposits for
which FCAW was used offered greater wear resistance than the

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Fig. 6. Microstructure of SMAW-C: (a) single layer; (b) three layers.

Fig. 7. Microstructure of SMAW-D: (a) single layer; (b) three layers.

Fig. 8. Aspects of worn surfaces: (a) FCAW-A; (b) FCAW-B; (c) SMAW-C and (d) SMAW-D.

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4.5

749

proves that wear resistance in hardfacing deposits increase with

high concentrations of carbide rich in titanium and the results
demonstrate that the hardfacing using FCAW process presents
better abrasion wear resistance than the materials using SMAW
process.

Single Layer
Three Layers

Mass Loss (g)

3.5

4. Conclusions

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
FCAW B

FCAW A

SMAW C

SMAW D

Fig. 9. Mass loss of the welding samples.

SMAW process. The FCAW-B presented the greatest abrasive wear

resistance, where the microstructure was formed by uniformly
distributed carbides rich in titanium. The increase in volume
fraction of carbides found in three-layered hardfacings improved
their abrasion resistance. As reported by Buchely et al. [8], wear
resistance is determined by the size, shape, distribution and
chemical composition of carbides.
The FCAW-A presented higher hardness than the FCAW-B,
for both single and three layers. However, FCAW-B presented
lower mass loss than FCAW-A. An explanation for this is that the
FCAW-A presents cracks that propagate due to the brittleness of
the matrix, and material removal takes place due to brittle
fracturing, increasing mass loss. That explains why no clear
relation was found between the hardness of the deposits and their
abrasion resistance. According to Chatterjee et al. [9] hardness can
only give a rough estimation but not an exact prediction of
abrasion resistance. The results showed that the variation in
chemical composition and microstructure of the hardfacing
deposits are more relevant to the improvement of abrasion
resistance than hardness is.
Abrasion resistance increased with the number of layers
applied, with the exception of the SMAW-D hardfacing. Buchely
et al. [8] investigated the effect of the microstructure for three
different commercial hardfacing electrodes; the study shows that
three-layer complex carbide deposits showed the best abrasive
wear resistance. Nevertheless, when only one layer was deposited,
the high dilution levels reduced wear resistance. This research

Hardfacing using FCAW presents higher abrasive wear resistance than hardfacing by SMAW process.
FCAW-B has the highest wear abrasive resistance because it
presents a microstructure composed of a eutectic matrix with
carbides rich in titanium, which act as barriers to cutting by
abrasive particles.
The abrasive wear mechanisms found on the worn surfaces
were: microcutting, microploughing and wedge formation.
The abrasive wear resistance when three layers were applied
increased, with the exception of the SMAW-D hardfacing.
In general terms, no relation was found between hardness and
the abrasive wear resistance. This due to the fact that the carbides
and matrix microstructure was more important than hardness in
the abrasion resistance of the deposits.

Acknowledgments
The authors thank COLCIENCIAS and Manuelita Mill for
nancial support. Special thanks to Alejandro Toro and Felipe
Santa from the National University of Colombia (MedellinColombia).
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