• Senthilkumar, V.
• Duraiselvam, Muthukannan
• Vaishnavi, P.
• Anandakrishnan, V.
• Arun, Ilangovan

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Electrical discharge alloying was performed on AISI-D2 steel using Ni–W powder mixed dielectric in order to improve the hardness and to reduce the specific wear rate. The alloyed layer was characterized using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Wear tests were conducted based on L9 orthogonal array in a pin-on-disc tribometer and the alloying parameters were optimized using Taguchi's technique. Hard intermetallics based on Fe<jats:sub>7</jats:sub>C<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>, Cr<jats:sub>3</jats:sub>C<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> and Ni<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>W<jats:sub>4</jats:sub>C were formed by electric discharge alloying, which primarily contributed to the improvement in hardness up to 600 HV<jats:sub>0.5</jats:sub>. The specific wear rate of the alloyed layer was subsequently reduced by around a factor of eight compared to that of the base material. The pulse off-time was found to be predominant in obtaining higher hardness and lower specific wear rate among the alloying parameters, peak current, pulse on-time and off-time.</jats:p>

Topics

• scanning electron microscopy
• x-ray diffraction
• wear resistance
• wear test
• carbide
• hardness
• tool steel
• intermetallic
• optical microscopy
• spectroscopy