Effect of cold metal transfer process on hardfacing of Inconel 718 over stainless steel 304

•Hard-facing is done by CMT using the Stringer bead technique with a 30 % of overlap.•Bead overlapping restricts the grain growth and forms fine equiaxed grains.•Fine grains and strengthening elements improved the hardness, tensile and impact properties.•Compared to Base Substrate the Hard-faced layer exhibits better high-temperature corrosion properties. Stainless Steel 304 (SS304) is hard-faced with the Inconel 718 (IN718) using Cold Metal Transfer (CMT) by stringer beads with 30 % overlapping. Hard-Faced Layer (HFL) showed a dilution of 23.7 %. And it has columnar and equiaxed grains. Additionally, bead overlapping restricts the grain growth and forms fine equiaxed grains. HFL’s microhardness value was 30.3 % greater than the substrate. Also, exhibhits maximum UTS of 738 MPa with maximum elongation of 35 %. Hard-faced layer shows high impact energy values (309 J). Further, HFL offers the better hot corrosion resistance. Fracture and corroded surface morphologies reveals the fracture modes and protective layer failures.