Iron-based intermetallic hard alloys for wear protection

The intermetallic hard alloys, the Tribaloys, were developed in the 1970s on the basis of cobalt and nickel. Both base materials are expensive educts, whereby cobalt in particular is limited in its applicability (e.g. food industry, power plant components) and at the same time the demand in certain branches of industry, e.g. electromobility, is very high. It would therefore be desirable to develop an iron-based intermetallic hard alloy with good wear resistance and good processability through a welding process. Preliminary investigations have shown that the intermetallic Laves phase Fe2Ti is very well suited for use as a hard phase in an iron-based wear-resistant alloy.
This publication shows that it is possible to produce a coating with an iron-based, intermetallic alloy using a plasma powder cladding process, which can be applied with low cracking, using a modified alloy concept and an improved process strategy.
The influence of the alloying elements on the formation of the microstructure morphology is also considered. In addition, the wear resistance in the Miller test according to ASTM G75 is compared with two commercially available cobalt-based alloys and an iron-titanium alloy.
It can be shown that the modification of the alloy composition results in different characteristics of the hard phases. The wear resistance of the newly developed iron-based intermetallic hard alloys is significantly higher in the Miller test according to ASTM G75 compared to the two commercially available alloys. Furthermore, an improvement in the wear resistance of the newly modified alloys was achieved compared to the iron-titanium alloy already investigated.