Nickel-based thick hardface coatings are employed in nuclear power plants because of their superior wear and high-temperature resistance properties. Unfortunately, fabrication of a crack-free coating with less dilution is difficult using the conventional hardfacing techniques like Plasma Transferred Arc (PTA), Metal Inert Gas (MIG) etc. A sound coating having optimum hardness and better wear resistance property is essential for reactor applications. The current work aims to investigate the wear behaviour of Ni-Cr-B-Si hardface coating deposited on 316LN stainless steel, where metal-cored filler wire was used as a consumable in the Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) welding process. The hardface coating was characterized for its hardness and microstructure. Apart from that, pin-on-disc wear tests were performed using the extracted pin specimens from the hardfaced substrate. From this experiment, a micro-hardness of 531.24 ± 73.15 HV_0.5 was measured across the coating cross-section. The microstructure analysis revealed the presence of precipitates like borides and carbides in the coating. Further, a specific wear rate of the order of 10⁻¹⁴ m³/Nm was found from the wear tests. Confocal microscopy on the worn surfaces of the pin specimens revealed, the surface damages mostly occurred by ploughing and fracture. The investigation ensures that CMT can be used for depositing crack-free, low dilution and wear-resistant hardface coatings in nuclear industries.

镍基厚硬面涂层因其优异的耐磨性和耐高温性能而被用于核电站。不幸的是，使用等离子转移弧 (PTA)、金属惰性气体 (MIG) 等传统堆焊技术难以制造稀释度较低的无裂纹涂层。具有最佳硬度和更好耐磨性的良好涂层对于反应堆至关重要应用程序。目前的工作旨在研究沉积在 316LN 不锈钢上的 Ni-Cr-B-Si 硬面涂层的磨损行为，其中金属芯填充焊丝用作冷金属转移 (CMT) 焊接过程中的消耗品。硬面涂层的特征在于其硬度和微观结构。除此之外，使用从硬面基材中提取的销试样进行销对盘磨损试验。从这个实验来看，显微硬度为 531.24 ± 73.15 HV_0.5是在整个涂层横截面上测得的。微观结构分析表明涂层中存在硼化物和碳化物等沉淀物。此外，从磨损试验中发现了10 ^-14 m ³ /Nm数量级的特定磨损率。销钉试样磨损表面的共聚焦显微镜显示，表面损伤主要发生在犁和断裂。调查确保 CMT 可用于在核工业中沉积无裂纹、低稀释和耐磨的硬面涂层。