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Abstract
Several different tool steel grades were deposited on mild steel by the laser-cladding process with coaxial powder feeding. With bidirectional scanning pattern, most of the grades were deposited crack-free with hardness up to 1000 HV without additional preheating. In a 3-body abrasion wear study, the laser clad Ralloy® WR6 with significant portion of retained austenite exhibited superior abrasive wear resistance compared with the predominantly martensitic tool steel coatings (M2, M4, H13, HS-23, HS-30) and the reference material, Raex® Ar500 wear resistant steel. The abrasion wear resistance of austenitic–martensitic WR6 tool steel was further enhanced by the external addition of 20% volume percentage of relatively large (45–106 µm) vanadium carbides. In single point scratch tests, predominantly martensitic tool steels outperformed austenitic–martensitic tool steels and wear resistant steel. The differences in wear performances were explained by different wear mechanisms and types of contact between the abrasive and the surface.
Acknowledgements
This research was carried out as part of the TRILASER project which belonged to Finnish Metals and Engineering Competence Cluster’s (FIMECC) Innovations and Network Programme. The work has been made possible by financial support from Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes), Kokkola LCC Ltd, Metso Paper Inc. and MH Engineering Ab. Juha Junkala from Technology Centre Ketek Ltd is highly acknowledged for cladding the test specimens.