Liupanshan Laboratory overcomes technical challenges in martensitic stainless steel coating technology

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Liupanshan Laboratory Overcomes Technical Challenges in Martensitic Stainless Steel Coating Technology 2025-12-10 09:54·Jintai News On December 8, reporters learned from the High-End Special Materials Research Center at Liupanshan Laboratory that, after months of intensive research, the center’s R&D team succeeded in creating a high-quality wear-resistant coating on the surface of 2Cr13 martensitic stainless steel – a coating free from both macroscopic and microscopic cracks. This achievement ensured a strong mechanical bond between the coating and the base metal, filling a technical gap in this field in China. In industrial production, coating the surface of martensitic stainless steel with a nickel-based alloy wear-resistant layer is a key method to improve the performance of components and extend their service life. However, due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the two materials, the coating is prone to cracking or even peeling during cooling. This long-standing technical bottleneck severely limits the application of martensitic stainless steel in high-end equipment sectors. This year, the Advanced Special Materials Research Center at the Liupanshan Laboratory also encountered this common challenge in the industry during tests in relevant material markets. Dai Wanxiang, head of the High-End Special Materials Research Center at the Liupanshan Laboratory, said that after realizing the need to find breakthroughs within the material system itself, the R&D team decided to focus their efforts on innovative design of coating materials, and developed over 50 experimental plans to conduct verification tests. Through the screening of candidate solutions, the R&D team conducted coating preparation tests on those with good performance; after cooling, the coatings showed no cracks and met the required performance standards. To address the microcracks that still existed in the first-generation solution, the team developed over 10 second-generation optimization schemes. Ultimately, the three approaches successfully eliminated both macroscopic and microscopic cracks, indicating that the coating cracking problem had been fundamentally resolved. “This achievement can be directly applied to the surface strengthening of martensitic stainless steel components such as hammer heads in machinery manufacturing, wear-resistant valve balls in the petrochemical industry, and transmission parts in aerospace. ”Dai Wanxiang said that the nickel-based alloy powder has been tested by customers, resulting in a 3–5 times increase in wear resistance, which effectively helps downstream enterprises reduce costs and improve efficiency. This technology not only expands the application prospects of martensitic stainless steel in high-end wear-resistant fields, but also provides strong support for relevant industries to enhance their core competitiveness.