Studies on remelting of tungsten carbide and rare earth modified nickel base alloy composite coating

Abstract

The Ni base alloy (EWAC 1004EN) was used to develop coatings on the mild steel substrate by flame spraying process. The Ni base alloy powder was modified by adding tungsten carbide (10 and 20 wt-%) and CeO₂ to study their effects on the microstructure, microhardness and abrasive wear behaviour of unmodified and modified coatings. All the coatings were subjected to remelting using tungsten inert gas arc welding. The abrasive wear behaviour of all the coatings in different conditions was studied using different normal loads (5, 10, 15 and 20 N) against 120 and 600 grit size abrasive medium. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the worn out surfaces was carried out to understand the wear mechanisms. It was observed that the remelting of the coatings increased the hardness of WC and CeO₂ modified flame sprayed coatings by ∼35%, while the abrasive wear resistance increased by 1·5- to threefold.