Mechanism of Cracking Resistance of Hardfacing Specimens of Steel 5CrNiMo Improved by Rare Earth Oxide

The cracking morphology of the hardfacing specimens taken from steel 5CrNiMo was observed. Meanwhile, the residual stress fields were measured and simulated. Based on experiment mentioned above, the improved structure and modified inclusion in hardfacing metal with rare earth (RE) oxide were analyzed. The results show that, the hardfacing crack is initiated from the coarse dendritic crystal grain boundary, inclusions and coarse austenite grain boundary in the HAZ and propagated by the residual stress existing in the center of the hardfacing metal and HAZ. The primary columnar grain structure can be refined by adding RE oxide in the coating of the electrode. The inclusion in the hardfacing metal can be modified as well. Meanwhile, if the martensite transformation temperature is decreased, the largest value of the residual tensile stress in the dangerous region can be reduced.