A novel martensitic steel powder for plasma arc direct energy deposition to remanufacture broken gear teeth

A novel martensitic steel powder was employed to remanufacture broken teeth on open gears by plasma arc direct energy deposition technique. To fabricate tapered rectangles resembling broken gear teeth, a process was developed and both cross sections and longitudinal sections were optimized. The hardness of the remanufactured tooth was 2.92 times that of the AISI 1045 gear, and the wear loss was decreased by 35.9%. The microstructure of the intragranular martensitic structure, the intergranular eutectic (Fe, Cr)₂₃C₆ particles and the M₂B hard phase were the main reasons for the high hardness and wear resistance. The hardness of the remanufactured tooth presented a uniform distribution in general, which was due to the microstructure of the novel 1Cr17Ni2B deposition material.