Wear Resistance Improvement of Austenitic 316 L Steel by Microwave-Processed Composite Clads

Metal matrix composite (MMC) claddings can be effectively used in severe wear working conditions. The present work successfully develops the MMC clad of Ni + 10% WC8Co + Cr₃C₂-based material on SS-316 L substrate using cost-effective microwave hybrid heating (MHH) technique. The developed composite clads showed the refined microstructure with the existence of randomly dispersed reinforcement particles inside the Ni based matrix. The phase analysis study results of the clad region revealed the formation of various hard phases of Co₃W₃C₄, Cr₇Ni₃, NiC, NiW, W₂C, Fe₆W₆C, Fe₇C₃, FeNi₃ during microwave heating. The hard phases present in the clad region contributed to the enhancement in the microhardness. The mean microhardness of the clad region was observed as 550 ± 40 HV. Further, composite clad exhibited excellent wear resistance than SS-316 L substrate under different tribological conditions.