Studies on electrodes made on the basis of tungsten and titanium carbides for mechanised electrospark alloying
The article deals with the development and study of tungsten and tungsten-free electrodes for electrospark alloying (ESA) with the addition of boron minerals and aluminum oxide nanopowder obtained by the explosion of conductors with particles from 20 to 80 nm in size. There has been studied the process of generating alloy layers (AL) on the steel 45 with the usage of mechanised ESA and presented the data of the study on of the surface layers obtained from the steel 45 with the usage of the electrodes made of the titanium carbide with nickel molybdenum binder and the addition of 0.5-3 wt. % mineral (datolite concentrate (DTC)) as well as the electrodes made of tungsten carbide with cobalt binder and the addition of aluminum oxide nanopowder 1, 3, 5 wt. %. There have been determined the most effective modes of ESA and the composition of the formed AL: the 500 Hz frequency and the duration of the spark discharge of 20-80 microseconds. The method of atomic force microscopy has made it possible to reveal the formation of nanostructures generated from nanoparticles TiC and WC in the process of ESA and AL. In all cases, when adding DTC and aluminum oxide nanopowder, the productivity of the ESA process and the microabrasive wear of AL increase.