A comparison of the abrasive wear behaviour of iron-chromium based hardfaced coatings deposited by SMAW and electric arc spraying

The abrasive wear behaviour of shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) hardfaced Fe–Cr–C deposits used in the sugar cane industry have been compared with an experimental arc-sprayed Fe–Cr–B coating. The aim was to identify an alternative process that performed equally or better than SMAW in terms of wear performance under a specific wear environment. The study showed that variations in the morphology of the carbides and structure of the weld deposits produced marked differences in resisting dry abrasive wear. The arc-sprayed coating exhibited comparable wear resistance to that of the SMAW overlays, although it had higher porosity and its microhardness was lower than the welded deposits.