ELECTRON-BEAM SYNTHESIZED HARD LAYERS ON MILD-STEEL

Hard surfaces have been synthesised on mild steel. The technique invol ves surface coating followed by electron beam mixing by melting. The c oating comprised metallic or metalloid powders, graphite powder and a water soluble binder. Modified surface layers of various dimensions we re prepared by controlling electron beam processing parameters. Many c arbide forming elements were investigated and boron and tungsten were found to be the most promising. The hardnes of the modified layers dep ended on the concentration of the alloying elements and varied between similar to 600 and 1000 HV(500 g). The technique is advantageous main ly because hard coatings can be fabricated on almost any substrate tha t melts under an electron beam. Modified surfaces produced on mild ste el are described in the present paper.