Tribological Properties of Laser Processed Fe-Cr-C Alloys

A laser rapid-alloy-prototyping technique, was used to produce a number of alloys with compositions lying in the Fe-rich corner of the Fe-Cr-C system. These alloys were prepared in the form of thick coats deposited on a carbon steel by variable powder feed rate laser cladding. The microstructure of the alloys was analyzed by SEM and their mechanical properties were evaluated by microhardness tests, ball-cratering micro-scale abrasive wear tests and scratch tests. Although a poor correlation between the hardness of the alloys and their wear behavior was observed, the correlation between their wear resistance and the fab factor, measured from the scratch tests, is acceptably good. These results are discussed and analyzed on the basis of the microstructural characteristics of the alloys.