Wear 267 (2009) 1415–1419

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Wear
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wear

The effect of boron on the abrasive wear behavior of austenitic Fe-based

hardfacing alloys
Ji Hui Kim a , Kang Hee Ko b , Seung Dae Noh b , Gyung Guk Kim a , Seon Jin Kim a,∗
a
Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, Republic of Korea
b
IPT Team, Memory Division, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics, Hwasung-City, Gyeonggi-Do, 445-701, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The effect of boron on the abrasive wear behavior of the austenitic Fe–Cr–C–Si–B hardfacing alloys was
Received 10 April 2007 investigated with varying boron concentration. It was found that the abrasive wear resistance of the
Received in revised form hardfacing alloys increased up to 50% compared to that of boron-free alloys with increasing boron concen-
22 December 2008
tration. The mechanism of the abrasive wear resistance changed at 0.6 wt.% boron. Below 0.6 wt.% boron
Accepted 5 March 2009
concentration, the abrasive wear resistance was improved almost linearly and strain-induced marten-
Available online 1 April 2009
sitic transformation was considered as the controlling factor for improving the resistance. Above 0.6 wt.%
boron, it was observed that the primary borides started to precipitate. Further increase in boron con-
Keywords:
Abrasive wear
centration was not able to enhance the resistance due to the negligible change of primary borides’ size
Hardfacing and volume fraction. With these results, it was concluded that two different effects of boron on the wear
Boron resistance of the austenitic Fe–Cr–C–Si–B hardfacing alloys existed depending on the boron concentration.
Strain-induced martensitic transformation
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction resistance in addition to the effect of already-existing chromium

The hardfacing process is an effective tool for reducing cost,
maximizing the wear resistance and increasing the life of machin-
ery components by overcoming the severe wear conditions. In the
severe wear conditions, Fe-based alloys containing high Cr and C
content have been mainly used owing to their good abrasive wear
resistance. Their excellent abrasive wear resistance are tradition-
ally attributed to the formation of hard chromium carbide [1,2].
However, Chatterjee and Pal [3] have reported that the abrasive
wear resistance was not further improved even if high volume
fraction of chromium carbides were present over 35 vol.%. In this
respect, a strain-induced martensitic transformation and primary
borides can be an attractive solution to improve the abrasive wear
resistance further.
With addition of boron in Fe-based austenitic alloy, it is
expected to refine the austenite grain size. Then it promoted the
strain-induced martensitic transformation [4]. In addition, primary
borides can be helpful to improve the abrasive wear resistance due
to the high potential of excellent wear resistance resulted from the
high hardness of the primary borides [5]. Therefore, the boron addi-
tion should result in further improvement of the abrasive wear
carbides. In this paper, the effect of boron on the abrasive wear
behavior was investigated in terms of a strain-induced martensitic
transformation and primary borides formation.
2. Experimental procedure
Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–xB alloys with varying boron concentration
from 0.0 to 2.6 wt.% were prepared by induction melting under an
argon atmosphere and those alloys were machined by wire cutting
according to ASTM A-36 electrode specimen (see Fig. 1) and the
abrasive wear tests were performed. The chemical composition of
the alloy was analyzed using an optical emission spectrometer and
the chemical composition is summarized in Table 1. The surfaces
of specimens was polished to a roughness value of Ra < 0.02 ␮m by
grinding on 2000 grit SiC abrasive paper. The abrasive wear tests
were performed in accordance with ASTM G-65 as shown in Fig. 2.
The type of abrasive particles were AFS 50/70 Ottawa test sand and
those particles’ diameter was 212–300 ␮m.
The followings were test conditions: load 130 N, sand flow rate
25 g/min, wheel rotation speed 200 rpm, wheel diameter 228.6 mm
and the tests were terminated after 6000 cycles rotations. After the
tests were performed, optical microscopy was carried out. X-ray
diffractometer as used to identify the crystalline phases.

∗ Corresponding author at: Division of Materials Science and Engineering, 3. Results and discussion
Hanyang University, Seoul, 133-791, Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 2 2220 0406;
fax: +82 2 2293 7844. The weight losses of boron-free and boron-added alloys as a
E-mail address: alloylab@hanyang.ac.kr (S.J. Kim). function of wear distance up to 4307 m and total weight losses with

0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2009.03.017
1416 J.H. Kim et al. / Wear 267 (2009) 1415–1419

Table 1
Nominal chemical composition of specimens (wt.%).

Sample Alloy Fe Cr C Si B

A Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–0.0B Bal. 20.03 2.52 1.05 –

B Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–0.1B Bal. 19.77 2.50 1.01 0.1
C Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–0.2B Bal. 20.22 2.38 1.07 0.22
D Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–0.3B Bal. 19.66 2.45 0.97 0.30
E Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–0.6B Bal. 19.33 2.43 0.97 0.61
F Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–1.0B Bal. 19.87 2.41 0.91 1.08
G Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–1.7B Bal. 20.17 2.41 1.11 1.68
H Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–2.0B Bal. 19.97 2.35 0.87 1.89
I Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si–2.6B Bal. 20.30 2.45 0.92 2.77

Fig. 1. Dimension of ASTM A-36 electrode specimen.
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of ASTM G-65.
increasing the boron concentration from 0.0 to 2.6 wt.% at 6000
cycles (4307 m) was shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. Inde-
pendently the boron concentration, the weight losses increased
linearly up to 6000 cycles. The total weight loss decreased dramati-
cally with increasing boron concentration up to 0.6 wt.%. The mean
weight loss of the boron-free alloy was 88 mg, but that of the alloy
containing 0.6 wt.% boron was 61 mg. While, those above 0.6 wt.%
were not distinct differences. It means that the boron concentration
below 0.6 wt.% has an important role in determining the abrasive
wear resistance of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si alloy.
The changes of microstructure and the reduction of grain size
with increasing boron concentration were shown in Figs. 4 and 5,
respectively. Up to 0.6 wt.%, the microstructure consists of
austenitic matrix and the eutectic phases, and the mean austen-
ite grains were noticeably refined. While, above 0.6 wt.% compared
with the alloys containing boron below 0.3 wt.%, the volume frac-
tion of second phases increased and the primary borides were
coarsely precipitated. When contained boron above 1.0 wt.%, the
morphology of primary borides changed from strip-like to hexago-
nal.
This grain refinement should lead to strengthen of austenite
matrix in accordance with Hall–Petch equation and that strength-
ened matrix could be one of the factors to resist abrasive particles
and enhance the abrasive wear resistance.
Ala-Kleme et al. [6] reported that primary precipitates could
prevent abrasive wear losses and increasing fraction of primary
precipitates progressively improved the wear behavior. At 0.6 wt.%
boron concentration, the abrasive wear resistance also improved
compared to 0.3 wt.% boron concentration due to the formation
of primary borides, not only due to the strain-induced marten-
sitic transformation. However, as increasing boron concentration
from 1.0 to 2.6 wt.%, the change of primary borides’ size and vol-
ume fraction were almost negligible, resulting in saturation of the
improvement in the abrasive wear resistance. Thus, the abrasive
wear resistance, in the range of 1.0–2.6 wt.% boron concentration,
did not improved as increasing boron concentration and saturation
of weight losses was recorded as shown in Fig. 3(b).
In addition to mean grain size reduction effect mentioned above,
the strain-induced martensitic transformation can be inferred from

Fig. 3. (a) The weight losses of boron-free and boron-added alloys as a function of wear distance after 2000, 4000 and 6000 cycles of wear test and (b) total wear losses as a
function of boron concentration.
 J.H. Kim et al. / Wear 267 (2009) 1415–1419 1417

Fig. 4. Metallographic changes of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si with increasing boron from 0.0 to 2.6 wt.%.

the grain size reduction. According to the previous report by
De et al. [5] who treated the effect of grain size on the strain-
induced martensitic transformation, the phase transformation can
be assisted by decreasing the grain size. XRD analysis results were
represented for confirming the occurrence of the strain-induced
martensitic transformation in Fig. 6. Below 0.6 wt.%, even if the
amount of the strain-induced martensites could not be estimated
quantitatively, the initial austenite phases were transformed the
martensite phases due to the applied strain by abrasive wear test.
While, the initial phases of alloys containing boron above 1.0 wt.%
consist of martensite and various second phases such as boride and
carbide. The occurrence of strain-induced martensite transforma-
tion could not be verified in Fig. 6.
The effects of boron addition on the strain-induced marten-
site transformation were reconfirmed by measuring the hardness
profile under the worn surface in Fig. 7. Since the strain-induced
martensite was appeared after wear test, the hardness of the
alloys containing boron up to 0.6 wt.% increased more than the
initial hardness. Corresponding to XRD analysis, it is explained to
be occurred the strain-induced martensite transformation. How-
ever, above 1.0 wt.%, the increase of hardness after test was almost
nil.
1418
Fig. 5. The reduction of the mean grain size as a function of a boron concentration.
As above mentioned, it is considered that the abrasive wear
resistance of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si alloy was improved by the
grain refinement and the strain-induce martensite transforma-
tion resulted from increasing boron up to 0.3 wt.%. In case of
0.6 wt.% boron-added alloy, the grain refinement and coarse pri-
mary carbides have synergistic influences on improving the wear
resistance. As precipitated the second hard phases and disappeared
the austenitic phases in alloys containing boron above 1.0 wt.%,
it is considered that the high initial hardness resulted from the
martensite and the second hard phases helped to maintain the wear
resistance.
To ascertain correlation between the grain refinement and the
tendency of strain-induced martensite transformation resulted
from adding boron was not enough in this study. However, it
is clearly explained that the boron addition up to 0.6 wt.% had
a major effect on improving the abrasive wear resistance of
Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si. When added above 1.0 wt.%, the wear resis-
tance did not improve in spite of increasing the initial hardness.
Fig. 6. X-ray diffraction data of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si including boron concentration up to 2.0 wt.% after abrasion test.
J.H. Kim et al. / Wear 267 (2009) 1415–1419
Fig. 7. Hardness profile of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si including boron concentration up to
2.0 wt.% after abrasion test.
It is considered that the brittle high hard phases were broken and
fragmented during wear test.
4. Conclusions
The abrasive wear resistance of austenitic Fe–20Cr–2.4C–
1.0Si–xB with varying boron concentration improved as increas-
ing boron concentration up to 0.6 wt.%. Over 0.6 wt.% boron
concentration, the abrasive wear resistance was almost satu-
rated. The mechanism of the abrasive wear resistance changed
as function of boron concentration and main conclusions are as
follows:
(1) In a hardfacing alloy of Fe–20Cr–2.4C–1.0Si, the strain-induced
martensitic transformation improved the abrasive wear resis-
tance and the martensitic transformation was accelerated
through grain size reduction by boron addition below 0.6 wt.%.
 J.H. Kim et al. / Wear 267 (2009) 1415–1419
(2) At 0.6 wt.% boron concentration, the primary borides were
started to precipitate and these precipitates resulted in an
improvement of the abrasive wear resistance.
(3) Further increasing of boron concentration above 1.0 wt.%, the
resistance of abrasive wear was almost saturated due to the
negligible change of primary borides’ size and volume fraction.
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