The curves of weight losses of the specimens
against wear distance in both abrasive and adhesive
wear tests are shown in Fig. 5. It is obvious that the
weight losses decreased after the remelting process
in both tests. With the remelting-chilling process,
the crystalline grains in the top layer became fine
and crystallites formed. The forming of metallic
compound matrix and fine crystalline grains lowered
the weight losses of the remelting-chilling layer.
Furthermore, a large amount of borites, such as CrB2 and Ni3B, which possess great hardness, precipitated
in the layer. As a result, the wear resistance was
improved. In abrasive wear tests, specimens remelted
with a plasma torch of 880 W possessed higher wear
resistance than those remelted with a plasma torch of
440 W. This is because the 880 W plasma torch
produced a thicker remelting-chilling layer than the
440 W plasma torch.