Refurbishment of Continuous Caster Rolls by Laser Cladded Fe-Cr-Ni-Mo-Co Alloy

Laser cladded low carbon 12Cr-5Ni-3Mo-5Co-based Fe powder system has been implemented to improve the performance of the vertical section rolls. Compositional, microstructural, and mechanical characterizations of the cladding and substrate materials were carried out as part of the development work. The electron probe microanalyzer was used to observe the distribution of important chemical elements in the clad region. The hardness value of clad region containing almost 100% martensitic structure was found ~ 1.5 times more than the substrate value. The dilatometry test conducted within the temperature range from 100 to 700 °C shows that the coefficient of linear thermal expansion was lower for clad part than the substrate. Oxidation test was carried out at three different temperatures (200, 400, and 600 °C), where results showed that clad part possesses much better oxidation resistance than the substrate. Wear test carried out at 400 °C showed that wear loss for clad material is comparatively smaller than that of the roll material. It was found that the applied laser cladded system offers a good combination of hardness, oxidation resistance, and wear resistance compared to the conventional martensitic stainless steels (X20Cr13 grade).