Wear studies of composite microwave clad on martensitic stainless steel

Abstract

In the present work, clads were developed through microwave energy which is as an emerging trend. Martensitic stainless steel (SS-420) is considered as a substrate material to improve its surface properties. In the present work, clad powder such as tungsten carbide and cobalt-based powders were used in the weight ratio of 1:0.12, respectively. The clads were developed using domestic microwave oven at 2.45 GHz frequency and 900 W power through microwave hybrid heating technique. After performing a number of trials, the clads were developed with good metallurgical bond with an exposure time of 30 min. The main objective of clad development is to obtain a good mechanical and tribological properties. Wear studies through pin-on-disc method of the developed clad was performed on the basis of Taguchi method (L9) orthogonal array. The main influencing factors considered are sliding distance, sliding speed and load. It is observed that the sliding distance is most dominating factor than load and sliding speed.