Investigation of abrasive plus erosive wear behaviour of surface hardening methods applied to AISI 1050 steel

In the present technology, machine parts which work at the industry area such as agriculture, mining and cement are subjected to wear. The wear resistance of these parts is improved by conventional heat treatments or surface heat treatments, which only improved the property surface and sub-surface of materials. In this study, samples of AISI 1050 steel are subjected to induction hardening and thermochemical treatments such as boronising, nitriding and thermal spraying which involves flame spraying.. flame spraying plus melting, high velocity oxyfuel (HVOF) plus melting apart from the conventional heat treatment, which is oil quenching. At the end of wear tests, it is observed that the amount of wear in base metal decreased with the oil quenching but on the contrary to that the wear resistance was not improved with induction hardening and the other thermochemical surface treatments. However, the amount of wear in base metal was significantly decreased with thermal spraying methods. Even the additionally applied remelting treatment after spraying reduced to more smaller amounts. So, the applied remelting treatment after spraying plays much more important role in reducing wear. At wear surfaces of thermal spraying samples, the regional surface damages with slight traces of abrasive wear are seen. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.