Effect of vanadium alloying on microstructure and wear behavior of two-body abrasive particles of Fe–5.5 wt.% B surfacing alloy

The effects of vanadium addition on the microstructure and two-body abrasive wear behavior of an Fe-5.5 wt% B surfacing alloy prepared by the plasma arc welding technique were investigated. The results show that the Fe-5.5 wt% B surfacing alloys with different contents of vanadium are mainly composed of the primary Fe2B phase, Fe2B+Fe eutectic structure, and a vanadium boride (VB) precipitate. With increasing vanadium content in the Fe-5.5 wt% B surfacing alloys, the number of microcracks in the primary Fe2B phase decreases, and the microcracks finally disappear, while the volume fraction of VB increases concurrently. The primary Fe2B phase can be remarkably refined, and the growth orientation changes from preferential to disordered staggered growth. The hardness of the surfacing alloy shows a trend of initial increase and subsequent decrease. Meanwhile, the wear resistance of the two bodies shows a continuous increasing trend, and the change trend is the same under contact loads of 24 N and 48 N.