High manganese
austenitic steel, popularly called “Hadfield steel” has dominated and played
significant role in wear applications, especially in the mines and minerals
industries since its invention over a century ago. A review on the researches
on this steel revealed that its prominence in these fields is mainly due to its
good combination of impact and abrasion wear resistance arising from its high
toughness and high hardness respectively. Its strain hardening ability under
impact loading is evidenced by increase in hardness as the material work
hardens; this lowers the amount of wear in service. The work hardening property
of the steel has been linked to governing mechanisms such as dislocation,
deformation twinning, and dynamic strain ageing; also, it is enhanced by
increase in carbon, ageing temperature and reduction in manganese content.
Carbide precipitation along the grain boundaries and within the grains is the
major cause of embrittlement of the steel. These carbides together with voids
and porosities during casting solidification, improper heat treatment,
overheating during welding, use of unsorted scrap metal and wrong wear
application have been identified as the causes of premature failure in service.
Hardfacing method has been proposed as a means of substituting the steel in
wear applications, as alternative wear materials such as white cast iron and
austempered ductile iron lack the combination of impact and abrasion resistance
being offered by the Hadfield steel.
Subjects | Engineering |
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Journal Section | Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | June 28, 2017 |
Acceptance Date | June 21, 2017 |
Published in Issue | Year 2017 |