Wear performance of ductile iron after electrolytic plasma hardening

Abstract

This study aimed to improve the tribological behavior of electrolytic plasma treated (EPT) ductile iron (DI). For this purpose, ductile iron was electrolytic plasma hardened under different processing parameters (treatment time and thermal cycle). Three different types of specimens were tested: untreated DI, electrolytic plasma hardened DI and remelted DI by two type wear test. It was found that remelted DI performed much better concerning wear resistance than the other samples. The microstructure of the hardened specimens was investigated using optical microscopy. Microhardness profiles and surface hardness were investigated via the Rockwell test. The microstructure and hardness of the EPT hardened layer were dependent on the processing parameters, with the hardness values reaching the range 880-1080 ± 10 HV0.2. K e y w o r d s : electrolytic plasma hardening, ductile iron, hardness, remelting, wear

Microstructure and Abrasive Wear Resistance of Various Alloy Hardfacings for Application on Heavy-Duty Chipper Tools in Forestry Shredding and Mulching Operations

“…Cemented carbides, or hardmetals, are widely used for extremely demanding applications due to their hardness and strength, fracture toughness, and excellent wear resistance [4]. Another possible measures that may be taken into consideration, are the following: the whole tool quenching-and-tempering treatment, its surface carburizing, surface hardening, superficial alloying by laser or electric arc remelting, and hard surfacing [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. According to current in-service experience, premature failures of chipper tools still remain a pertinent issue in forestry which may be a consequence of the fact that degradation behavior of forestry tools has not been up to now so widely investigated, compared to other heavy-duty tools employed in, e.g., agriculture, road building, and the mining industry [14].…”

Technological possibilities of plasma hardening

“…Various methods for rapid intense heating of surface layers of metal are applied for that purpose. The most widely used methods are: a heating by high-frequency currents [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], a laser heating [15][16][17][18][19] and a gas-flame heating [20][21], a plasma heating [22][23] is used for very limited applications.…”

“…Heating by high-frequency currents has become widespread [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] but its application is limited by the inability to localize the heat source in confined areas and by the low efficiency of converting of electrical energy into thermal one in the heating zone.…”

Taguchi Optimization of Electrolytic Plasma Hardening Process Parameters on Ti‐6Al‐4V Alloy: Microstructure and Mechanical Properties

“…[9] Achieving optimum surface properties with high energy density, minimal energy, and time consumption of electrolytic plasma treatments (EPT) is extremely important from an economic and environmental point of view. [12][13][14][15][16] Today, methods such as Taguchi, [17][18][19][20] response surface method (RSM), [21,22] and artificial neural network (ANN) [23] are used for optimization and estimation in coating and tribology.This study investigates the microstructural evolution of Ti-6Al-4V under EPT thermal as a pioneer study. Moreover, a methodology of surface hardening Ti-6Al-4V alloy with graded microstructure and performance was conducted by applying the EPT thermal cycles.…”

“…[9] Achieving optimum surface properties with high energy density, minimal energy, and time consumption of electrolytic plasma treatments (EPT) is extremely important from an economic and environmental point of view. [12][13][14][15][16] Today, methods such as Taguchi, [17][18][19][20] response surface method (RSM), [21,22] and artificial neural network (ANN) [23] are used for optimization and estimation in coating and tribology.…”