Hardfacing provides one of the most cost effective ways of improving the service life as well as the efficiency of metal parts that are subject to wear. If you want to cut back the cost of replacing, repairing, and maintaining machinery parts, you would want to consider this technique of protecting the metal parts.
However effective hardfacing may be in protecting metal parts, it requires a greater understanding of the hard resurfacing applications and procedures. You may think that by simply selecting a premium hardfacing material like crushed tungsten carbide, you will get the desired results, but this may not be the case. Here are tips to enable you to get the desired results in your hardfacing process:
Know the Base of Metal
The kind of base metal that is being welded on can determine how it will be treated. Some metals can withstand temperature changes as well as extremes in cold and hot environments but others do not. So, examine the metal that you are hardfacing to ensure it will work well with Tungsten Carbide. Some of the base metals you may hardface with Tungsten Carbide material are such as carbon steels, abrasion resistant steel, mold steel, cast iron, and steel with high strength and low alloy.
The Type of Wear
There may be different ways in which machinery parts wear out including abrasion, corrosion, adhesive wear, high compression loads, and high temperatures. Depending on these kinds of wear factors, you will need to ensure you use the right hardfacing product. The choice of the product to use may depend on individual or a combination of these wear factors.
Understand the Process
While there are many things to look at when doing the hard resurfacing process, one important aspect to examine is proper pre-preparation of the surface to be welded. Regardless of which base material you are working on, it is always important to employ proper pre-cleaning before you can hardface the part. You need to wipe the base metal to ensure you get rid of contaminants such as dirt, grease, rust, and oil.
In the event that you are working on a part that had already been hardfaced, you may want to remove the old layers and cracks. This may be achieved by carbon arc gouging or by using grinding technique.
By preparing the surface for hardfacing, it ensures proper bonding for enhanced strength. This way, the product you apply to protect the metal part will not wear out prematurely. These are just a few of the tips you can follow when doing hardfacing using crushed tungsten carbide.
