TUFFSTUDD Wear Protection evolved continuously from 1981 until now. At the time manual hardfacing was the primary method of wear protection for ground engaging equipment. Manual hard facing has many negatives. Although the cost of welding electrodes were relatively inexpensive, the application of hard facing:
The stud welding process has been in existence since World War II. The development of stud welding reduced labor time, eliminated two sided fastening of various types and sizes of fasteners as well as reduced heat input to base material.
It was determined that the stud welding process could be used to replace manual hard facing as well.
In research of welding materials for hard facing, that could be applied with stud welding, it was determined that a high carbon, cast chromium carbide button could be developed. This allowed two accomplishments:
The results showed an increase of wear life improvement 2-3 times greater than with manual hard facing.