The Development of Next Generation Wear Plate Overlays Using Big Data

This study shows how data-driven modeling tools aid in the development of alloys that meet specific processing, property, and performance requirements. By leveraging a “big data” approach, two new alloys were designed that outperform commonly used materials in hardfacing and wear plate overlay applications. Over one million alloy compositions were analyzed to find two with the right combination of matrix and hard phases to provide the desired level of impact and abrasion resistance. The difference between the two alloys is in their matrix phase; one being austenitic, which has higher toughness, the other being martensitic, which has higher resistance to abrasive wear.