Restoration of the Impact Crusher Rotor Using FCAW with High-Manganese Steel Reinforced by Complex Carbides

A new hardfacing alloy within the Fe-Ti-Nb-Mo-V-C alloying system was utilized to restore the working surfaces of cone crusher rotors using Flux-Cored Arc Welding (FCAW). TiC, NbC, Mo₂C, VC, Mn, and ferromanganese powders were selected as the base materials for manufacturing the welding wire. The resulting hardfaced layer exhibits a composite structure, with manganese austenite as the matrix and complex solid solution reinforcements with a NaCl structure, closely resembling the formula (Ti_0.3Nb_0.3Mo_0.3)C. The primary advantages of this hardfacing alloy include its capacity for intensive deformation hardening along with high abrasion resistance. The hardness of the hardfaced layer is approximately 47 HRC in the as-deposited state and increases to around 57 HRC after work hardening, surpassing typical hardfacing alloys derived from high manganese steel by about 10 HRC. The efficacy of the alloy was tested in restoring rotors made of Hadfield steel in a PULVOMATIC series crusher model 1145, during the milling of sand-gravel mixtures ranging from 25 to 150 mm into spalls measuring 5 to 20 mm. With an average productivity of approximately 60 tons per hour and a production volume of 300 tons, the utilization of this hardfacing alloy enabled multiple restorations of the rotor while maintaining productivity at a level of 15 thousand tons of spalls.