A Review on Hardfacing, Process Variables, Challenges, and Future Works

Abstract

Hardfacing is an efficient and economical surfacing technique widely used by heavy industries to remediate worn components in service or to enhance the component’s wear characteristics components prior to use. Efficient hardfacing for any targeted application requires precise consideration and understanding of the deposition process, consumables, and substrates. It is also essential to understand the process variables and issues that can occur during the deposition processes, such as dilution and defects in the deposit, including residual stress-induced cracking. Significant research has been published over many years on several aspects of hardfacing, primarily focusing on abrasive wear, corrosion, and impact characterisation using different welding methods and alloy compositions. This paper primarily focuses on reviewing the prior hardfacing literature to systematically summarise the considerations and selection criteria for hardfacing processes and materials. It also presents a discussion on key process variables, such as welding parameters and number of surfacing layers, highlighting their influences during the hardfacing deposition procedure. This paper further discusses issues and challenges in hardfacing practices, such as dilution and cracking. One significant issue investigated is the thermal damage to high-strength steel substrates, with the measurement and characterisation of the damage being key elements. The focus of this investigation is to discuss the optimisation of hardfacing high-strength steel substrates and to communicate potential research areas and prospective applications in the hardfacing industry.

Effects of Heat Treatment and Erosion Particle Size on Erosion Resistance of a Hypereutectic High-Chromium Cast Iron

“…In industrial applications, a widely adopted solution to extend the service life of components in machinery equipment or implants involves the application of protective coatings to the most critical zones exposed to severe wear conditions (e.g., high operating temperatures, corrosive environments, mechanical damage by impact of solid particles) through welding techniques [1]. Among various surface coating and protective hardening techniques, hardfacing stands out due to its low cost and ease of handling [2][3][4]. Hardfacing enhances the corrosive, abrasive, and heat resistance properties of the surface by creating a cladding metal layer with improved features.…”

Influence of Imposed Strain on Weldability of Dievar Alloy

“…The first group comprises typical methods during which the heat for melting and depositing the weld metal is generated by electric arc (e.g., shielded metal arc welding [48][49][50], gas metal arc welding [51,52], gas tungsten arc welding [53,54], flux-cored arc welding [55], submerged arc welding [56,57], etc. ), while the second group of methods uses a concentrated energy source (e.g., plasma [58,59], laser [60,61], or electron-beam welding [62], etc.) One of the above-mentioned technologies is gas tungsten arc welding, which is advantageously utilized due to its high weld quality and low dilution.…”

“…Numerous works focused on preparing heterogenous weld overlays to enhance the functional properties or extend the lifespan of various components have been published. The studied hard-faced materials have been, for example, based on Fe [45,57,60], Co [45,51,53], Ni [53,54,60], or W [63].…”

Thermodynamic Analysis of the Corrosion Behaviour of Hardfacing Alloys Containing Chromium Nitrides

“…Hardfacing can be applied to any base metal to increase the lifespan of industrial components used in mining and other wear resistance applications [1]. For these applications, steels are the most common metals on which hardfacing is applied.…”