Wear and corrosion characterisation of AISI 1030, AISI 1040 and AISI 1050 steel coated with Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) and Plasma Transfer Arc (PTA) methods

Abstract

In this study, the surface alloying process was carried out by using Plasma Transfer Arc (PTA) and Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) on the surfaces of plain carbon AISI 1030, 1040, 1050 steel materials. The performance of the coatings was evaluated by applying mechanical tests and electrochemical techniques. The results show that the resistance against the plastic deformation increased significantly by surface alloying; it reached the highest value of 896 HV with SMAW coating. The wear test findings exhibited that the surface alloying process improved the wear properties of the materials, and it was more pronounced for the coating powder Toolcord. In general, SiC+B4C coated steels hard-faced with the PTA method demonstrated better corrosion potential and corrosion rate compared to SMAW coatings. This improvement is probably due to the attendance of boron oxide in the oxide film, making it more resistant against Cl- attacks. The Nyquist analysis showed a semi-circle capacitive loop at high frequency and an inductive loop at low frequency for all samples. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis showed that better corrosion resistance was observed for 1030 when using PTA with powder SiC+B4C, while for 1040 and 1050, it was SMAW with powder Citodur.