Microstructural evolution of worn surface and subsurface of high Mn additive iron-based hardfacings subjected to repetitive impacts and sliding

In this article, a new impact-sliding wear test setup was developed to investigate the impact-sliding tribological/wear behavior of manganese (Mn) additive iron-based hardfacings. The effect of increased Mn content from 0 to 13 wt% on the wear characteristics was examined for a constant load of 200 N, 1000 impacts and 50 strokes/min speed. Hardness evaluation tests revealed that the hardness was increased after the impact-sliding wear tests. The worn surfaces of hardfacings/alloys/hardfacing alloys containing 0 and 8 wt% Mn presented a similar mechanism of micro-abrasion, but the damage caused by the abrasion in 8 wt% Mn additive hardfacings was not so effective in comparison to the hardfacing containing 0 wt% Mn. Above 8 wt% Mn addition, oxidative wear became the dominant wear mechanism with the formation of protective tribo-oxide layers and the wear trend exhibited enhancement in the wear resistance of hardfacings. On the other hand, subsurface analysis showed severe damage under the tribo-oxide layer, which revealed that the wear trend is not an exact indicator of wear resistance of the material. Wear behavior of the hardfacings has been successfully correlated with the hardness, morphology of the worn surfaces and subsurfaces.