In Maintenance and repair welding, there is increasing demand regarding the life of the component. It is misinterpreted in the industry that more hardness of the weld built up will give more life. Yes, theoretically it is true partially. But what actually the thing which enhances the life of component is in the microstructure of the weld.

Carbide formation in the weld built up metal is responsible for giving good life. These carbides are having excellent wear resistant property. For different applications different carbide forming elements are alloyed which forms stable carbide by combining with carbon. Refractory elements like W,Mo,Nb. etc. are alloyed for high temperature wear applications.

So, if i have two weld built up having same hardness but with different microstructure than wear resistant of the weld having more carbides will be good compared to other. Below shown is the microstructure of Martensite phase and Chrome-carbide phase. Martensite will have less wear resistant property than chore-carbide phase(Hexagonal white portion is chrome carbide)

Wear Factor:

• It is the measurement of the wear rate of the metal/alloy. Wear factor depends on the Microstructure– % volume fraction on carbides, Size of Metal carbides, Mean free path between carbides & Hardness of Matrix.
• Wear testing is practiced according to ASTM G-65. It gives mass loss of the metal. Rubber wheel is rotated at fixed rpm for particular no. of revolutions and in between rubber wheel and metal sand is feed continuously at fixed sand flow rate. This will generate abrasion in the metal thus causing mass loss.
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  Wear testing equipment

  Calculating wear factor:

• Volume loss(gm) = weight loss/density
• Wear factor = 1/ volume loss
• More the wear factor, more wear resistant and longer service life.

So, check for microstructure if you really want to enhance the component life.

Keep Reading, Happy welding

Thank you,

KP Bhatt