Improving wear resistance of rails has a direct impact on the performance of rail-wheel system in railroad technology. Enhancement of sliding wear resistance at curved track, where factors such as adhesion, high slip ratios and contact fatigue act at contact patch of rail-wheel system, is particularly desirable. In the present investigation, influence of laser surface modification on sliding wear performance of a pearlitic rail steel (used in Indian railways) under two different conditions, namely, laser hardening (without any melting involved) and laser melting (with thin surface layer melting), has been studied under laboratory conditions. Before sliding wear testing, the effect of laser scanning speed on the treated layer depth has been optimised, utilising a 9 kW CO 2 laser system. Sliding wear tests were carried out using a pin-on-disc device, with laser treated and untreated pearlitic rail steel discs and sliding pins made of wheel steel material, tungsten carbide (WC) and high speed steel (HSS). The tests were performed under normal prototypic loads and unlubricated conditions. Microhardness in the laser melted layer was in the range of 830-900 HV as against 890-1070 HV in the hardened layer, and was found to depend on the laser scanning speed. Sliding wear resistance of both hardened and melted layers was found to be significantly improved compared to untreated rail steel. The coefficient of friction was also marginally reduced in the laser surface melted layers.

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In the present work, an attempt has been made to study the slurry erosion properties and operating erosive wear mechanisms of Co-based Stellite 6 and Ni-based Colmonoy 88 coatings, and also to list the conditions at which maximum and minimum erosion rates occur. Laser surface alloying (LSA) has been done on 13Cr-4Ni steels with commercial Co-based Stellite 6 and Ni-based Colmonoy 88 powders. Slurry erosion tests have been conducted on LSAmodified steels for a constant slurry velocity of 12 m/s and for a fixed slurry concentration of 10 kg/m 3 of irregular, sharp-edged SiO 2 particles with average sizes of 375 and 100 lm and at impingement angles of 30, 45, 60, and 90 deg. A mixed (neither ductile nor brittle) mode of erosion behavior for Stellite 6 coatings and a brittle mode of erosion behavior for Colmonoy 88 coatings were observed when these materials were impacted with particles with an average size of 375 lm, whereas only a brittle mode of erosion was observed for both Stellite 6 and Colmonoy 88 coatings when impacted with particles with an average size of 100 lm. Mainly, chip formation, chip fracture, microcutting, plowing, and crater lip and platelet formation were observed for Stellite 6 coatings and progressive fracture of carbides, carbide pullout and carbide/boride intact were observed for the case of Colmonoy 88 coatings.

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