Study on Tribological Properties of a New Fe3Al-Based Alloy as an Alternative Material for Scraper Conveyor

Abstract This work reports on the sliding wear properties of Fe3Al-based alloy in conditions of dry sliding and quartz sand abrasion. The wear strengthening mechanism is also analyzed in detail. On this basis, the feasibility of using Fe3Al-based alloy instead of 42CrMo steel to make the wear-resistant scraper components in scraper conveyor is discussed. The results show that the wear mass loss and wear-rate of Fe3Al-based alloy are significantly lower than 42CrMo steel in dry sliding wear and abrasion by quartz sand, which indicates good sliding wear resistance. The wear resistance of Fe3Al-based alloy can be attributed to the grain boundary strengthening caused by the carbide precipates, dislocation fine-grained strengthening, and hard phase strengthening of Al2O3 in the wear surface. Compared with quenched and tempered 40CrMo steel, the lower density of Fe3Al-based alloy can reduce the weight of scraper components by about 15%, and the lower matrix hardness can reduce the wear loss of middle groove and scraper chain. The hardening effect of the worn surface layer can effectively improve the sliding wear resistance of the scraper by about 68%, which is very beneficial to improve the service life and reliability of the scraper conveyor.