The hot-rolled AISI 1050 medium carbon steel plate with 38 mm
width and 14 mm thickness was applied to the substrate. It is neces-
sary to execute the annealing process so that the substrate is heated
at 850 °C to obtain a homogenous hypo-eutectoid structure and fa-
vorable workability prior to the cutting process. The substrate was
machined into a block of 100 mm×35 mm×12.5 mm, and was sub-
sequently treated by performing ultrasonic cleaning with acetone
for 10 min to clean the surface. For the cladding material, 10 g of
WC powder (average particle size 1 μm) was mixed with an appro-
priate amount of 4 wt.% polyvinyl alcohol to form pieces of paste of
96 mm×10 mm×1 mm. The paste material was attached to the sur-
face of the AISI 1050 substrates and was subsequently dried for 24 h
at 60 °C to remove moisture. The GTAW process was applied for sur-
face cladding, the process parameters of which are listed in Table 1.A
high welding current (150 A) was used to obtain a flat clad surface.
The same process was used to clad the TiC clad layer, for which 6 g
of TiC powder (average size 2 μm) was used. One of the set clad spec-
imens was tempered at 600 °C for 1 h to evaluate the heat treatment
effect on the microstructure and erosive wear of the clad layer. The
specimens ofWC and TiC claddings were labeledWC and TiC, respec-
tively, whereas the specimens tempered at 600 °C for 1 h were la-
beled WC-6 and TiC-6, respectively.