Development of Advanced Surface Enhancement Technology for Decreasing Wear and Corrosion of Equipment Used for Mineral Processing

The proposed research program deals with the use of a High-Density Infrared (HDI) based method for producing more wear- and corrosion-resistant metal surfaces. The method will be used to achieve enhanced component surfaces through the following concepts: 1. Controlled thermal treatment of surfaces to convert them to higher hardness for a known level of depth, without affecting the core properties. 2. Controlled thermal treatment of surfaces to enrich them with certain elements for a known level of depth, without affecting the core properties. 3. Controlled thermal treatment of surfaces to fuse and diffusion bond externally applied coatings of hard materials, including WC, Cr2C3and others. The carbide coatings will include a variety of matrix materials including Ni, Ni-Cr, and CO. The component surfaces treated by all of the concepts described above will be characterized by a range of methods including metallography, microhardness profiles, and microprobe analysis. The enhanced surfaces will also be characterized for their bend resistance, debonding in case of coatings and their wear resistance under simulated mineral processing conditions.