The Brazilian sugar/alcohol sector presented expressive growth in recent years. However maintenance cost is high due to metallic losses by wear. This paper studies the application of hardfacings by flux cored arc welding on the wear resistance of sugarcane shredder knives comparing laboratory and field-test results. Four types of consumable were used: three selfshielded flux cored wires of diameter 1.6 mm of alloys FeCrC, FeCrC+Nb and FeCrC+Ti and a covered electrode of FeCrC alloy of diameter 4.0 mm. The base metal is SAE 1020 steel. Test specimens were evaluated using rubber wheel abrasion tests (ASTM G65). Sugarcane shredder knives hardfaced in the same welding conditions were also tested on a shredder in an alcohol distillery. Wear evaluation is by mass loss. The flux cored wires were welded in short-circuit transfer mode with the same current and voltage values. The wire with Nb had the highest wear resistance in laboratory test but due to cracks and spalling had the least wear resistance in field test. The FeCrC and FeCrC+Ti wires presented the worst results in laboratory tests and the best results in field test, respectively. In comparison with the covered electrode, the FeCrC+Nb wire presented similar performance in laboratory and the FeCrC+Ti wire presented similar performance in field tests.
Hardfacing; Wear resistance; Flux cored wire; Sugar/alcohol industries
