Characterization of the Effect of the CO2/CO Sintering Atmosphere on the Abrasion Resistance of a FeCrCB Hardfacing Coating

FeCrCB alloys have become an attractive option as a hardfacing coating to extend the service life of tools used in primary and secondary industries. In this work, experiments are reported on the sintering of FeCrCB alloy powders for hardfacing coatings by modifying the CO2/CO ratio using six different atmospheric gas conditions. The hardfacing coating was found to have higher microhardness and higher abrasion resistance under a 10C atmosphere. This increase in mechanical properties is related to the microstructure, as the atmosphere using 10C promotes the formation of a higher quantity of hard phases, while the presence of CO induces the formation of higher volumetric fractions of eutectic phases, and, consequently, lower abrasion resistance is obtained.