Wear properties and microstructural characteristics of mild steel cladded with AISI 316L stainless steel using constant current gas metal arc welding process

The main objective of this study is to investigate the microstructure and wear resistance of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel (ASS) cladding deposited over mild steel (MS) of grade IS 2062 using constant current (CC-GMAW) gas metal arc welding process. The microstructural features of cladded region were analyzed using optical microscopy (OM). The wear rate of cladded specimens was studied using pin-on-disc method and the morphology of wear surfaces was studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The microhardness distribution of cladded region was analyzed and correlated to the wear performance of cladded specimens. The results showed that CC-GMAW cladded surface exhibited greater hardness and wear resistance compared to mild steel substrate. The overlay region of CC-GMAW clad showed the evolution of dendritic structure and columnar grains. The CC-GMAW cladding showed martensite laths and widmanstätten ferrite plates microstructure in the HAZ region closer to interface. The wear rate of CC-GMAW cladding increases with increase in load from 1.5 kg to 5.5 kg. It showed 422.85% and 423.58% increase in material weight loss and wear rate at higher loads. The materials weight loss of CC-GMAW cladding increases from 0.0082 g to 0.0517 g with increase in speed from 150 rpm to 550 rpm. The wear rate of CC-GMAW cladding increases from 3.66 × 10-5 g/m to 10.94 × 10-5 g/m with increase in temperature from 27 °C to 200 °C.