CLADDING & HARDFACING

Cladding is a fusion welding technique used to deposit a

strip of weld metal on to a component to achieve the
desired dimensions or properties, replacing lost metal
or providing a wear or corrosion resistant surface
For example, a creep resistant material such as 2 1 / 4 Cr
-1Mo steel can be provided with a corrosion resistant
surface layer of stainless steel for use in corrosive
media at high temperatures
The process is usually confined to relatively large and
thick components which need to be manipulated to
enable welding to be carried out in the flat position
The technique finds its widest application in the oil, gas
and related industries and in the nuclear power
generation field where it is used for surfacing the
internal surfaces of pressure vessels and large diameter

The welding process employed to do this may be either

submerged arc or electroslag, with the wire filler metal
being replaced by a flat strip of the surfacing material
The strip widths commonly used vary from 15mm to
240mm, with a thickness of 0.5mm in Europe and
0.4mm in Japan, enabling a band of the strip width and
some 3mm to 5mm in depth to be deposited in a single
pass
Deposition rates can be very high and vary according to
the process, strip width and welding current
For example, the deposition rate from a 60mm wide
strip can be as high as 36kg/hr for electro-slag and
20kg/hr for submerged arc welding
In addition to achieving higher deposition rates than
submerged arc cladding, electroslag cladding has the
capability of providing far lower levels of substrate

Materials available for surfacing include

martensitic, austenitic and duplex stainless steels,
nickel based alloys, copper nickel alloys, cobalt
based and carbide containing hard surfacing alloys
The majority of the parent materials on to which
the cladding is deposited are carbon or low alloy
steels, selected on the basis of cost or for their
specific mechanical properties, as in the example
quoted above
Conventional submerged arc welding equipment
can be used for both processes, the only
modification being the provision of a welding head
designed to feed the selected width of strip

The main limitations of both processes are the

need to weld in the flat or downhand position and
to provide adequate access for the welding head
The overlap between adjacent beads must be
controlled to avoid lack of fusion defects
The chemical composition of the strip must be
carefully selected to take into account the level of
dilution, and welding parameters must be closely
controlled to ensure that the predicted level of
dilution is consistently achieved

Common Hard facing Processes

Common Hard facing Materials

Submerged arc
cladding

Electro Slag
cladding

Plasma Hard
facing

P.T.A. DEPOSITS SHOW THE FOLLOWING

CHARACTERISTICS:
An attractive bead with no signs of oxidation, and
with little or no
ripple
Very low dilution
High, density, no porosity & no inclusions
Microphotos or x-rays show the deposits to be of
high density & metallurgically bonded to the
Substrate