Investigating the wear resistance of AISI 410/AISI 2205 hybrid weld cladding on annealed EN 8 medium carbon steel

A new multi-layer and multi-material hybrid configuration of weld cladding an annealed EN 8 substrate has been developed and investigated. The AISI 410 martensitic stainless steel is used as the bottom and top clad layers and the AISI 2205 duplex stainless steel is used as the middle weld cladding layer which creates a composite multi-material clad structure with distinct interfacial characteristics. Examination of microstructure unveiled lamellar morphology of the top layer with martensitic-austenitic constituents with maximum hardness, whereas the intermediate layer exhibited ferritic-austenitic morphology with lower hardness. The bottom layer exhibited a tempered martensite structure with a relatively smaller grain size and exhibited intermediate hardness. The bottom-substrate interface displaying the highest interfacial hardness, followed by the middle-bottom interface and the top-middle interface in descending order. Incorporation of AISI 2205 in the intermediate contributed to an increased toughness of 30 MPa√m. During the ball-on-flat sliding wear test, the coefficient of friction displayed an intriguing pattern after a critical load threshold. Higher applied loads led to decreased absorbed energy and a reduction in wear track dimensions. Elevated heat levels promoted tribofilm formation, contributing to lower wear rates, with the optimum condition observed at 7 N, displaying the lowest volumetric loss and wear rate. The primary wear mechanism predominantly involved plastic deformation and plowing, with no apparent indications of brittle fracture.