31 p.

202s-205s 2013

Effect of Preheating and Buttering on Cracking Susceptibility and

Wear Resistance of Hardfaced HSLA Steel Deposit *
by Winarto** and Dedi Priadi**
Hardfacing weld techniques apply mainly to improve the service life of engineering components either by rebuilding or fabricating a
composite layer, which will protect the components from wear, erosion, and corrosion. However, hardfaced deposits are susceptible to cracks
compared to the base metal due to thermal cycles and different chemical composition of hardfaced consumables. In addition, this method
yields only marginal improvements in wear resistance performance. This investigation was attempted to eliminate the cracks by depositing a
soft buttering layer by using austenitic stainless steel consumable in the area between base metal and hardfaced layer. Preheating was also
applied at the joint. The result reveals that buttering and preheating reduce crack susceptibility and increase wear performance of hardfaced
HSLA steel deposit.

Key Words: HSLA steel, Hardfacing, Preheating, Buttering, Crack Susceptibility and Wear Resistance

typically classified according to the expected hardness. However,

1. Introduction

the abrasion resistance of a hardfacing alloy depends on many

High strength low alloy (HSLA) steel plate is designed to

factors such as the type, shape and distribution of hard phases, as

provide optimum combination of wear resistance, controlled

well as toughness and strain hardening behavior of the matrix [7].

hardness and ease of processing through hardening and

Complex carbides electrodes are also used especially when

precipitation strengthened by micro alloy (Cr, Mo, Ti) carbides.

abrasive wear is accompanied by other wear mechanisms [8].

In addition, some steels provide a transformation induced

Preheat, buttering layers, and or combination of both preheat

plasticity (TRIP) effect and are reinforced by the structure of

and buttering layers are commonly used to reduce the problems

micro alloy carbides. Most of HSLA steels belong to high-quality

caused by the brittle nature of the hardfacing alloys. On the other

steel group especially in regard to wear resistance steels, which

side, because it is difficult to weld hardfacing layer to the base

are widely used in various industries such as mining, cement and

metal having great variation of mechanical properties as well as

heavy equipment. In those fields, machinery components involve

physical properties, it is essential to select a proper filler metal

in severe and continuous wear processes. Thus, material

serving as a buffer in reducing the incompatibility.

processing for this purposes need to be controlled to prevent

Electrodes having similar properties with the base metal are

component damages that may increase the production costs [1, 2].

commonly used as buttering layer as in Alloy 2 electrodes.

Hardfacing weld is a common method in manufacturing new

However, austenitic stainless steel (ASS) electrodes are often

components to improve surface ability to face severe wear,

used as buttering layer on HSLA hardfacing for remedial

corrosion or oxidation. With this method, service life would

purpose. This is due to a higher solubility of hydrogen in

extend for the most in various industries [3]. For repairing

austenitic phase. In addition, the use of stainless steel

purpose, HSLA wear damage components are commonly welded

consumables has revealed that the weld metal is not prone to

with similar metals or weld deposit with hardfacing alloys to

cracking [9, 10].

recover the wear-resistant surface of the base materials. Some

Several welding techniques can be used for hardfacing

problems, however, exist in which sandwiched hardfacing alloy

processes. The most important differences among these

welds experience cracks in the interface between hardfaced layer

techniques lie in the welding efficiency, the weld plate dilution

and the base metal. This problem is usually due to the brittle

and the manufacturing cost of welding consumables [11-13].

nature of the interface. Therefore, special care is required during

Therefore, SMAW process is commonly used for this purpose due

HSLA welding [4, 5].

to the low cost of electrodes and ease of application.

A wide variety of hardfacing alloys are commercially

available for

two commercial buttering electrodes and one commercial

microstructure composed of disperse carbides in the austenite

hardfacing electrode in terms of their microstructure, hardness,

matrix are extensively used for abrasive applications [6] and are

and abrasive wear resistance.

wear.

Deposits with

The aim of the present work is to study the effect of preheat of

**

protection against

Received : 2012.09.30
Researchers in Metallurgy & Materials Eng. Department,
Universitas Indonesia - INDONESIA

31 2013

2. Experimental procedure

203s

Interface
Layer

2.1 Welded specimen

Six of 300 x 100 x 12 mm HSLA steel plates were used as
base material (chemical composition and mechanical properties

Location of
Hardness
Indentation

are given in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively). On each plate,

buttering layers with 1, 2 and 3 layers were deposited followed by
filling the hardfacing layer with 2 (two) layer per pass as shown
in Fig. 1. Each coupon was welded under the same conditions,
varying preheating temperature of 250qC and 25qC (RT),

(a)
(b)
Fig. 2 Schematic of wear test (a) and location of the hardness test
Table 1 Chemical Composition of HSLA Wear Resistance Steel (w.t.%)

numbers of buttering layer and 2 types of buttering electrodes

(Table 3). The welding parameters employed are presented in
Table 4. The consumable was a 3.2 mm diameter coated

Si

Mn

Ni

Cr

Mo

Cu

Al

0.182 0.374 1.540 0.0003 0.005 0.357 1.802 0.172 0.18

0.038

electrodes used with a manual metal arc welding (MMAW)

process. The welding position was flat; preheating and inter-pass
temperature was 250qC. The qualities of the welded coupons
were then evaluated by using radiographic testing.

Table 2 Mechanical Properties of HSLA Wear Resistance Steel

Hardness
(HB)

YS
(MPa)

UTS
(MPa)

EL
(%)

370

900

1200

12

KCVL-20oC Mod. Elas.

(GPa)
(J/Cm2)
45

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Table 3 Chemical Comp. & Min. Hardness of Coated Electrodes (wt.%)

Electrodes
Buttering
Alloy1
(E309L)
Buttering
Alloy 2
Fig. 1 Hardfacing layer was welded by SMAW process

2.2

Weld metal characterization

Transversal cross sections from each of the coupon were

prepared for microstructural characterization, hardness testing
and wear testing. The microstructural characterization was
performed by using optical microscope (OM) and scanning
electron microscope (SEM).
2.3

Wear testing and micro-hardness measurements

Wear resistance of hardfaced samples was tested by using

Ogoshi high speed universal wear testing machine. Wear

Mn

0.03

1.5

25.13 0.75

0.2

2.5

0.75

0.25

5.0

--

21

8.5

Hardfacing
Alloy

Cr

Mo

Ni

Nb

12.5

--

HRc

37
--

7.0

6.0

65

Table 4 Welding Parameters of Weld Hardfaced HSLA steel

Material / Thickness

HSLA Wear Resistance Steel / 12 mm

Welding Process

SMAW
Butter Alloy 1

Buttter

Hardfacing

(E309L)

Alloy 2

Alloy

3,2

3,2

5,0

120-140

120-140

180-230

Voltage (Volt)

20-30

20-30

20-30

Preheat (0C)

250

250

250

Electrode Types
Electrode Diam. (mm)
Current (Ampere)

resistance was tested by contacting flat specimen of weld

hardfacing sample against a 30 mm diameter of revolving disc
(65 HRC) with a load of 3.16 kg, abrasion speed of 1.97 m/s, and
abrasion distance of 100 m. Schematic of wear resistance tested is
shown in Fig. 2 (a).
After testing, samples were then examined under an optical

3. Result and discussion

3.1 Metallographic examination
The microstructure of the as-received HSLA steel plate shows
acicular martensite features as revealed in Fig. 3.

microscope with certain magnification to measure the abraded

The macrostructures of hardfaced plates without buttering

area of the specimens. Vickers micro-hardness of the samples was

examined in the area of the interface between substrate and the

measured on a transversal cross section from the hardfaced layer

hardfacing layer under SEM are presented in Fig. 4. The

(HL) to the base metal (BM) at several locations as can be seen in

micrographs revealed micro-cracks in all samples both in preheat

Fig. 2 (b).

and without preheat conditions.

204s

WINARTO et al.: Eect of Preheat and Buttering on Cracking Susceptibility and Wear Resistance of

(HL)

Fig. 3 Microstructure of HSLA steel plate as a substrate

Fig. 6

(BL)

Microstructure of Interface layer between the

hardfacing layer (HL) and the buttering layer (BL)

The micrograph taken from the hardfaced zone (Fig. 7)

exhibited clear visible and dendritic like deposits along the grain
boundaries. These dendrites were rich in tungsten as the
compound of metal carbides in the whole matrix.

(a)
Fig. 4

(b)

Microstructure of the non-buttered hardfaced plate with

(a) non-preheating and (b) with preheating

The macrostructures of the hardfaced plates with buttering by

using two alloys were also examined in the interface area under
SEM as can be seen in Fig. 5. Micro-cracks also revealed both in
the samples with and without preheat conditions.
Fig. 7

Microstructure of the hardfacing layer (HL)

3.2 Hardness examination

Hardness test result for 1 buttering layer exhibited lower
hardness when compared to 2 and 3 buttering layers (Fig. 8).
(a)
Fig. 5

(b)

Microstructure of the buttered hardfaced plate with

(a) non-preheating and (b) with preheating

Hardness increased in 2 buttering layers is expected to be due to

the difference of chemical composition arising from variation of
dilution levels [9]. In addition, buttering deposits with a
microstructure composed of different shape and distribution of

The formation of micro-crack through the interface of

hardfaced plate is due to brittle nature of the weld interface.

hard phase carbides in the austenite matrix might also have

influenced the hardness properties.

Micro-cracks are formed because of carbide cracking, and shear

3 BL

bands are formed in the matrix between them [8]. An attempt was

2 BL

then made to eliminate these cracks by depositing a soft buttering

1 BL

layer by using ASS consumable between base metal and

(HL)

(BL)

(BM)

hardfaced layer with several numbers of layers. The results

showed a clear microstructure of hardfaced plate cross-section
that invariably contain two distinctive regions, the hardfacing
layer (HL) and the buttering layer (BL). Micro-cracks still
revealed in the application of 2 (two) layers of buttering;
however, different condition happened in applying 3 (three)
layers of ASS consumable buttering in which the micro crack was
not revealed as shown in Figure 6.
Fig. 8 Hardness distribution along the hardfaced steel plates

31 2013

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3.3 Wear resistance performance evaluation

205s

Acknowledgements

Generally, the abrasive wear resistance is related directly to

This research was supported by Directorate of Research and

the hardness of materials. In this work, wear resistance

Public Services, Universitas Indonesia, through PHKI Research

performance was evaluated by using a 65 HRC revolving disc in

Grant No. 1078/H2.F4.D5/PPM.00.01/2012.

the Ogoshi wear testing machine. The abrasive wear rate was
determined from the volume loss as a result of contacting with the
hard revolving disks in the testing machine. Therefore, the test
results were used as a means to provide comparative information
about the relative performance of different treatment of hardfaced
alloys.
Wear loss of hardfacing alloys with different buttering layers
is presented in Fig. 9. The result indicates that the wear loss
decreases as the number of buttering layers increase. The 3
buttering layers hardfaced have the highest wear resistance. The 3
layers ASS buttering reveal lowest wear rate or highest wear
resistance compared with the others. This is possibly due to ASS
buttering layer having good ductility provides high fracture
toughness to the hardfaced steel plates [8,14,15].
The results show that the sample of hardfaced plate with 3
buttering layers has the lowest wear rate, and thus the most
wear-resistant material.

Fig. 9

Wear rate of the hardfaced steel plate by using different

types of buttering alloy (E309L & Alloy 2)

4. Conclusions
(1) Crack susceptibility of hardfaced weld HSLA wear resistant
steel by using MMA process was reduced by applying
preheating and buttering layer in the cross section of the
hardfacing layer and the base metal.
(2) The increase of hardness in multi buttering layers is
expected to be due to the difference in shape and distribution
of hard phase carbides in the austenite matrix.
(3) The lowest wear rate was found in the hardfaced plate with 3
buttering layers of austenitic stainless steel (309L), whereas
the plate gained the optimum hardness was the highest
wear-resistant material.

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