[Kenchireddy, 1(4): June, 2014] ISSN 2348 8034

GLOBAL JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND RESEARCHES

SOME STUDIES OF HARDFACING AND METALLURGICAL PROPERTIES
OF MILD STEEL USING SHIELDED METAL ARC WELDING PROCESSES
*1K.M.Kenchireddy, 2C. T. Jayadeva and 3Sreenivasan.A
1
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sri Krishna Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560090, Karnataka, India.
1
kenreddy@rediffmail.com
2
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Adichunchanagiri Institute of Technology, Chikmagalur-577102, Karnataka, India.
2
ctjayadeva@yahoo.co.in
3
Professor and Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sri Krishna Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560090, Karnataka, India.
3
sreeanjan@yahoo.co.in
ABSTRACT
Many engineering materials can be characterized by set of properties and these are varied. Heat treatment
is a controlled heating, cooling of metals for the purpose of altering their properties and can perform their function
without a concurrent change in the product shape. Both physical and chemical properties can altered by heat
treatment such as case hardening. This method is particularly useful for improving resistance to the surface
indentation fatigue and wear. Some of the applications of these case hardening are gear teeth, milling cutters,
cams, shafts, bearings, cutting tools and dies .through hardening of these parts would not be desirable. The hard
part must be the necessary toughness, impact resistance, corrosive wear and for this application, some surface
crack can propagate rapidly through the part and cause the total failure. Hardfacing is the deposition of different
metal over the parent metal to achieve required properties. Alloys can be added by various ways to hardfacing
surface by various means,such as incorporating in the powdered form in flux and making electrodes of alloying
elements. The alloying elements can be selected according to purpose such as chromium, vanadium, tungsten etc
carbide alloys offer excellent abrasion resistance and good heat resistance.

Keywords: Hard facing, Welding, Microstructure, Wear resistance, alloys.

I. INTRODUCTION II. HARDFACING AND

The study was conducted to observe the hardness of
bead using shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) [2]
[5] process by varying current, travel speed, and
voltage. Then the experiment were carried out to
detect the effect of hardness by using alloying
elements like chromium,carbon,silicon,manganese etc
on mild steel. The two types of electrodes was selected
by varying the percentage of chromium,carbon,silicon
etc. The selection of an alloy to hardface on a base
metal results in added protection that prolongs
equipment life. The base metal is covered with an alloy
of maximum thickness to improve the hardness, micro
structure by using the process parameters, such as
current, travel speed and voltage. The test specimen is
check for hardness in Vickers hardness tester for every
0.5mm depth from the top surface of weld bead layer
towards base metal. The hardness survey is made then
the average will give the final hardness.
METALLURGICAL STRUCTURES
OF MILD STEEL USING SMAW
ARC WELDING PROCESSES
The study was conducted to observe the hardness of
bead using submerged arc welding process by varying
current, travel speed and voltage. Then the experiment
was carried out to detect the effect of hardness by
using alloying elements like chromium, manganese,
sulphur, molybdenum and carbon on mild steel.
III. PREREQUISITIES OF THE
HARDFACING
A. Selection of HardFacing electrodes
Hard Surfacing alloys with the same hardness rating
can vary greatly in actual abrasive wear performance.
The correct selection of an alloy to hardface [1] or
build up on a base metal results in added protection
that prolongs equipment life. More often than not, a

(C) Global Journal Of Engineering Science And Researches

[30-33]
[Kenchireddy, 1(4): June, 2014]
judgment about a surfacing alloys. Hardness rating is
the feature that drives the purchasing decision
Hardness tests, such as Rockwell or Brinell, measure
the average hardness of surfacing alloys deceive their
high abrasion resistance from very hard carbides
dispersed throughout a soft, tough matrix. These tests
are the average hardness of both the carbide and matrix
over a relatively large area. The mistake is to use
hardness rating as the sole factor in making a
hardfacing alloy selection. Alloys may have similar
hardness rating, but very different wear resistance
[3][4]. Resistance depends on the combination of
hardness and the metallurgical microstructure of the
surfacing alloy. The microstructure of alloys varies
according to the chemical composition, which affects
the ratio of carbides to matrix and the type of carbide
in the alloy[8]. The alloy with the hardest, most evenly
dispersed carbide along with highest percentage of
carbide will have the best resistance of carbide will
have the best resistance to abrasion. The selection
process is easier if time is taken to clearly define the
service conditions and the welding application [9][10].
This is crucial to selecting the most effective
hardfacing alloy. Typically, there is more than one
factor impacting the wear application and this result in
a need for prioritization of alloy benefits before a final
decision can be achieved.
IV. HARD FACING WELDING
PROCESSES
The most common welding processes for
hardfacing are shielded metal arc welding
(covered electrode), flux cored arc welding and
submerged arc welding. Although other
processes such as oxy fuel and gas tungsten arc
can be used, their low deposition rates are limited
in some applications.
A. BASE METAL
The selection of base metal is very essential in
deciding what alloy to use for hardfacing deposit.
Since welding procedure differs according to the
base metal. The base metal selected for this study
is mild steel which composes the main elements
of carbon, silicon, manganese, sulfur, and
phosphorous. The chemical composition is
shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Chemical composition of base metal (In weight
percentages)
(C) Global Journal Of Engineering Science And Researches
ISSN 2348 8034
B. SELECTION OF HARD FACING
ALLOYS
Two different commercial hardfacing alloys were used
for overlaying [6]. These alloys were selected due to
its low cost and easy availability in the local market
and suitability for the service condition (low stress
abrasion)[7]. They are basically iron based alloys
having varying amount of chromium, carbon, silicon
and other alloying elements as they are more suitable
for shielded metal arc welding process. Chemical
compositions of two electrodes are presented in Table
2.
Table 2 Chemical composition of Hardfacing alloy (In
weight percentages)
V. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The standard size test specimens of 16 nos. with the
dimensions of 25010012 mm were selected for the
experiment. The following precautions are taken
before hardfacing.
The electrodes are perfectly dried in the
furnace and baked at 250o C one hour before
the use
Area of the weld is properly cleaned
Preheated the hardfacing area to a minimum
of 200o C
A. MACHINE SPECIFICATIONS
Name: TORNADO MIG 630 Arc welding machine
Current: 100-630 Amps
Input Voltage: 415 volts 10% / 50-60 HZ / 3 Phase
Machine Capacity: 50 KVA.
VI. METHODOLOGY
The experiment was carried out in three stages to
investigate the effect of current, travel speed and
voltage on hardfacing electrodes, and the
corresponding hardness was determined.
[30-33]
[Kenchireddy, 1(4): June, 2014]
(i) In first stage, voltage (V) and travel speed (S)
were kept constant and current (A) was
increased.
(ii) In second stage, voltage (V) and current (A)
were kept constant and travel speed (S) was
increased.
(iii) In third stage, current (A) and travel speed
(S) were kept constant and voltage (V) was
increased
The selected standard size of the test specimen is
shown in figure 1.The results of hardfacing obtained
by varying current, travel speed and current along with
their hardness and the corresponding relationship
between them are shown in figures 2, 3 and 4
respectively. From graphs, it is concluded that as
current, travel speed& voltage increases the hardness
of surface & the layer next to the surface decreases.
Figure 2 shows that, as current increases the hardness
of the bead & HAZ decreases. Figure 3 shows,
hardness decreases with increase in travel speed.
Figure 4 shows as voltage increases the hardness of the
bead & HAZ decreases.
Fig. 1 Standard test specimen of size 75266 mm
VII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A.HARDNESS TEST
The specimens were cut to a size of 100x30x12mm for
hardness testing and were polished using standard
metallographic procedure. Micro hardness surveys
were made on these specimens using Vickers hardness
tester along the direction of thickness from the top
surface towards the base metal after every 0.5mm.
These surface values are plotted in the form of a graph
shown in figure 5. The hardness survey of heat
affected zone (HAZ) samples for every 0.5mm depth
was made. The results indicate that the hardness values
are more on the weld surface & decrease towards the
base metal & remain constant on the base metal.
(C) Global Journal Of Engineering Science And Researches
ISSN 2348 8034
B.DRY SAND ABRASIVE WEAR TEST
Sample of 26x75x6mm size were used for analysis.
Specimens were ground using surface grinder to make
the surface flat. Dry sand abrasive wear test was
carried out as per ASTM G65 standards. In this test,
samples were held against a rotating rubber wheel
under the constant flow of abrasives in between the
sample and the rubber wheel under predetermined
load. The test conditions are given here under:
Speed: 2005rpm
Sample run duration: 30 minutes
Abrasive: loose silica sand having particle
size 200 to 250 m
Silica sand of size between 200 to 250m was used as
abrasive. Load is kept constant at 130.5N for all the
specimens. The wear rate was calculated as weight
loss in gms. Results indicate that as hardness
increases, the loss of wear decreases. Electrode-I has
less wear as compared to electrode-II as the percentage
of chromium, carbon and silicon is more in electrode-
I. However the composition of chromium, carbon &
silicon in the weld deposit made with type-I electrode
is higher than that of weld deposit made with type-II
electrode. Higher amount of chromium, carbon,
silicon and finer structure resulted in higher hardness
whereas lower hardness values were recorded in weld
deposit with less amount of Cr, C & Si & coarser
structure. From wear testing data under various
conditions of the parameters, it can be stated that weld
deposits made with type I electrode are more wear
resistant than the weld deposits made with type II
electrode.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
From experimental investigation it is concluded that if
alloys are added in the welding electrode, during
manual metal arc welding they mixed in the matrix of
the parent metal. And graph shows that as current
increase the hardness of surface and the layer next to
the surface decreases.
1) From the graph of Hardness V/s Current as
current increases there hardness of the bead and
HAZ decreases.
2) From the graph of Hardness V/s Travel speed
hardness decreases with increases in travel speed.
3) From the Graph of Hardness V/s Voltage first
hardness degreases.
From the graphs of hardness V/s current for alloyed
elements, hardness slightly decreases as the current
increases. So to retain the properties of alloying,
elements currents is the decision making factor. Too
low or too high current should be avoided.
[30-33]
[Kenchireddy, 1(4): June, 2014] ISSN 2348 8034
From above investigation it is concluded that if we
incorporate the elements like chromium, carbon,
Silicon, manganese, sulfur, and phosphors in the
surface of upper surface of deposited good hardness
values can be obtained and surface can be hardened at
desired value.

Fig. 5 Hardness Survey of HAZ

Fig. 2 Hardness v/s current keeping voltage(25volts) and IX. REFERENCES

travel speed (23.1 cm/min) constant
Fig. 3 Hardness v/s. travel speed keeping Current
(200Am and voltage (25 volts) constant
Fig. 4 Hardness v/s voltage keeping current (215Amp)
speed (37.5 cm/min) constant
[1] Ravi Menon, New Developments in
hardfacing Alloys, Welding Journal, p.61-67,
February 1996.
[2] Vernon E. Buchanan, Solidification and
microstructural characterization of iron-
chromium based hardfaced coatings
deposited by SMAW and electric arc
spraying, Surface and Coatings
Technology, Vol.203, Issue 23, p.3638-
3646,2009.
[3] D.N. Noble, Abrasive wear resistance of
hardfacing weld deposits, Metall
construction,p.605-611,Sept 1985.
[4] Study on wear behavior of Fe-Cr-C
hardfacing Deposits, T.K.Pal Metallurgical
engg. Department, Jodhpur University,
Calcutta-700032. Domian Kotech,
Hardfacing benefits maintenance and Repair
welding, welding Journal, p.51-53, Nov
1992.
[5] O.O. Zollinger, J.E.Beckham, what to know
before selecting Hardfacing Electrodes,
Welding journal, p.39-43, Feb. 1998.
[6] C.A.Mayer, How to select Hardfacing
Materials, Welding Design & Fabrication,
p.61-67, Oct 1982.
[7]and travel Menon. New Developments in
Ravi
Hardfacing Alloys Welding Journal p.43-49,
Feb.1996.
[8] D.J.Kotecki, J.S.Ogborn, Abrasion
Resistance of Ironbased Hardfacing Alloys,
Welding Journal, p.269s -278s, Aug.1995.
[9] J.H.Yang, X.B.Wang, K/Na-Treated Fe-Cr-c
Hardfacing Alloys with High-impact-
Abrasion Resistance, Welding journal,
p.103s-107s, March 1995.

(C) Global Journal Of Engineering Science And Researches

[30-33]