Effect of Cladding Current on Microstructure and Wear Resistance of High-Entropy Powder-Cored Wire Coating

This paper investigated the effect of tungsten arc melting current on the microstructure and wear resistance of coatings prepared from high-entropy powder-cored wire, FeCrMnCuNiSi1. A powder-cored wire of high-entropy composition was drawn by powder-cored wire-forming equipment, and a FeCrMnCuNiSi1 high-entropy alloy coating was designed on the base material 40Cr by the tungsten arc fusion technique. The influence law and mechanism of melting current on the wear resistance of the coatings were obtained through analyzing the microstructure, physical phase, and wear resistance of the coatings prepared by different melting currents. At a melting current of 200A, the FeCrMnCuNiSi1 coating exhibits fine equiaxed grains and a single BCC phase; the highest and average microhardness of the coating reach 790.36 HV and 689.73 HV, respectively, whose average microhardness is twice that of the base material. The wear rate of the coating is 2245.86 μm3/(N∙μm), which is only 8% of the base material and has excellent wear resistance. The FeCrMnCuNiSi1 high-entropy alloy coating prepared by ordinary powder-cored wire-forming equipment and the tungsten arc cladding method has excellent performance and low cost, which can provide an essential basis for the development, preparation, and application of high-entropy alloy coatings.