Morphology Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Fe25/WC/TiC Coating and Abrasive Wear Properties Under Dry/Wet Sand Conditions

To address the issue of low surface hardness and poor wear resistance of 45# steel, this study applied laser cladding technology to prepare three types of iron-based coatings on the surface of 45# steel: Fe25-30WC, Fe25-30TiC, and Fe25-15WC+15TiC. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the coatings were analyzed using SEM, EDS, XRD, Vickers hardness tester, and a mechanical testing machine. The results indicated that in terms of hardness, the Fe25-30TiC coating exhibited the highest average microhardness of 600 \({HV}_{0.2}\), followed by the Fe25-30WC coating (520 \({HV}_{0.2}\)) and the Fe25-15WC+15TiC coating (480 \({HV}_{0.2}\)). The bond strength of the Fe25-30WC coating and the Fe25-15WC+15TiC coating to the substrate was roughly the same, about 500 MPa, which is higher than that of the Fe25-30TiC coating (467 MPa). Additionally, the study discussed the abrasive wear characteristics of the three coatings under dry and wet sand conditions. The experimental results showed that under dry sand conditions, the Fe25-30TiC coating had superior wear resistance compared to the Fe25-15WC+15TiC coating and the Fe25-30WC coating. Under wet sand conditions, the Fe25-30WC coating exhibited better wear resistance than the Fe25-30TiC coatings and Fe25-15WC+15TiC coatings.