Effect of FeCr/FeV ratio during thermo-reactive deposition(TRD) process on mechanical properties and characteristics of carbide layer of Suj2 steel

Pack thermo-reactive deposition (TRD) process has been carried out on SUJ2 (AISI 52100) steel substrate, with different wt.% ratio of FeCr/FeV coating powder. In general, TRD process is able to produce several types of hard layer, e.g. carbide, nitride, or carbonitride layer to improve steel surface hardness and wear resistance. In this work, the FeCr/FeV coating powder ratio used were 15/85, 36/65, and 50/50 wt.%. The TRD process temperature was set at 980°C and held for 6 hours. Characterization was performed using microhardness tester, optical microscope and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The characterization results showed that the higher FeV ratio, the higher the hardness and the thicker the layer. The layer thicknesses of 17, 24.1, and 24.6 μm with the average microhardness value was 1989, 2148, and 2296 HV, for 50%, 65% and 85% FeV ratio, respectively. Similar with the hardness result, the lowest wear rate at 3.4x10^-4 mm³/m was obtained at 15FeCr/85FeV wt.% ratio. XRD identification showed that mixing the FeCr and FeV powder was successfully producing vanadium. chromium, and complex carbide layer on the surface of steel substrate. Several possible phases that formed in the layer were. V₆C₅, V₈C₇, Cr₇C₃, Cr₃C₆, VCr₂C₂, and Cr₂Fe₁₄C.