Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Abrasive wear and corrosion of equipment and consumables have a very large impact on Canadian industry. There is a strong market demand for welding electrodes for iron-based alloy overlays that can resist both abrasive wear and corrosion. Our long-term goal is to better understand the welding metallurgy for wear and corrosion resistant overlays. The objective in this application is to efficiently design a new self-shielding, high-Cr, metal-cored welding wire for overlay that is resistant to wear and corrosion. The technical objectives of the project are to study and control the weld microstructure so that the overlay will meet the requirements: (a) the wear resistance measured by ASTM standard is 0.19g max, and (b) the corrosion resistance measured by ASTM standard is no worse than that of the conventional chromium carbide overlay plates. This proposed research and training project will apply a systematic metallurgical approach to the critical industrial need for cost effective overlay to counter both wear and corrosion. The experimental core for this project involves accelerated alloy selection and wire design and microstructure characterization at University of Alberta, wire fabrication at a SSAB associated facility, and wear and corrosion testing of experimental overlay at a commercial lab. The industrial sponsor, SSAB, has made its R&D and production systems available for this project. The physical metallurgy lab at the University of Alberta has specialized equipment for measuring phase transformations in steels, mechanical properties, metallography, crystal structures, and electron microscopy. The experimental tasks will be performed within a theoretical framework of interactions between chemical composition, process parameters, phase transformations, crack resistance, hardness, and corrosion resistance. The outcome of this project will directly benefit the industrial partner SSAB through the establishment of chemical composition, process windows, and providing the currently unavailable overlay wire for their business.