Reading Between The Lines On Wear Steel
We received a call from a 3rd generation family-owned aggregate business, after one brother bought some AR200 steel for a chute application. He promptly called because he had never heard of AR200 before.
He started out our conversation saying,
At JADCO, we have earned the reputation as the go-to-company for wear resistant answers.
This Was A Perfect Example of
‘You Don’t Know – What You Don’t Know’
His brother was well-intentioned but had no prior experience with wear resistant steel. It can be easy to jump at a perceived bargain, on ‘wear’ material at a low price.
The old saying is still alive and well:
Unfortunately, Good Intentions Seldom Equal Good Results
I explained to him, JADCO’s 44+ years of experience with wear resistant materials, AR200 steel offers little more wear resistance than mild steel.
AR200 is a medium carbon steel, having none of the alloying chemistry found in ‘real’ wear plate. Installing AR200 in a wear area taking a pounding more than 10 hours per day, is a total waste of time. They will likely have to replace it when it fails, usually in the middle of their next big project.
But In Reality This Concept Is Even Worse
To accurately determine the total cost of this decision, you must include the cost of the unplanned downtime, lost profits, new replacement parts, replacement wear plate, etc.
Don’t forget to add in overtime labor needed to dismantle the equipment, just to pull out the failed material.
His Realistic Bottom Line?
This ‘bargain’ steel just became their most expensive available option.
It Is Easy To Create An Inexpensive Steel Having High Hardness Test Values
Simply add in more Carbon or Manganese. The resulting steel may have a harder surface, but under the surface, it quickly gets softer.
Here you can see the results from the logs scraping along the infeed chute side walls. The abrasion on the ¾” AR200 patch plate in just a couple of months, shows it was also a poor choice for this application.
That is exactly the results you get with AR200. On the surface it is somewhat harder than mild steel. However, without any alloying elements, it cannot create the same hardness throughout the thickness of the wear plate.
Think about an Oreo® cookie. The wafer portion of the cookie is harder than the soft crème filling in the center. This is an overly simplified yet accurate comparison of AR200 steel.
To confirm this information is accurate, here are the online results from websites of two steel distributors and a steel manufacturer.
One distributor’s website says:
Notice they state, ‘An inexpensive abrasion resistant material that can be machined, drilled, punched and formed.’
In a prior JADCO blog post (view post) …we covered how you should never attempt to punch through-hardened wear resistant steel. It will shatter the punch due to the hardness.
This statement tells you immediately the steel has no alloying chemistry and it cannot make the steel the same hardness all the way through.
Another steel distributor’s website states (View Website):
Reading between the lines, it is important you understand exactly what this information is NOT TELLING YOU:
‘As rolled’ means the steel has not gone through any heat-treating process to control hardness. It is simply rolled to size and thickness at the steel mill.
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‘Medium Carbon Steel’ means the Carbon content of the steel ranges between 0.25% and 0.60%. Preheating is critical when welding medium carbon steel. You must also carefully select the proper welding alloy for a successful installation. The higher the carbon content, the more likely it is the steel is difficult to form, weld and is prone to cracking.
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‘Designed For Moderate Wear Resistance’ is seldom what you experience, as your equipment attempts to wear itself out daily.
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‘AR200, AR235, or AR Medium depending on the manufacturer”. This tells you they buy whatever is available at the lowest price, from any steel mill. They don’t know what product they will receive, and you have no options. This eliminates every effort on your part to achieve consistent, predictable results for your equipment.
“…produced to a chemistry to achieve a desired Brinell Hardness range is 200-250 BHN.” This means by adding a bit more Carbon, they made an inexpensive steel to have a test hardness in an approximate range. NOTE: This does not guarantee any specific hardness. Unless you receive the hardness on YOUR specific steel plate, ASTM standards only require the hardness on one plate out of every 40 tons of steel produced. The remaining plates can be any hardness.
Here is the chemistry from one steel mill for their AR200.
It is extremely important to note Chromium, Nickel, Molybdenum and Boron elements are not listed. This is because AR200 does not contain any of these elements.
Which means the steel CANNOT achieve the same hardness throughout the thickness of the steel.
Their plate did have higher levels of Carbon and Manganese, allowing the steel to be hard on the top and bottom surfaces as stated before. This means it may be brittle, and certainly not suitable for impact applications.
So Where Do You Find The Right Solution and select the correct wear resistant steel for your most challenging applications?
You CAN count on a truly through-hardened 500 BHN plate like QT-PLUS ® from JADCO.
One reason is… WE TEST EVERY SINGLE PLATE OF QT-PLUS PRODUCED. You always know what the hardness is of your steel, as it is tracked from the steel mill step-by-step until it arrives for your project.
Unlike the AR200 discussed above, JADCO QT-PLUS ® is a low carbon steel, having substantial quantities of Nickel, Chromium, Molybdenum and Boron. These elements are required to create a wear resistant steel with the same hardness all the way through the thickness of the plate.
After comprehensive testing, QT-PLUS ® has been specified by several highly respected OEM equipment manufacturers as their go-to wear plate used to combat their most challenging applications.
We know you will also benefit using JADCO QT-PLUS ® in your most challenging wear applications.
Remember, poor material decisions and the time and money to overcome those errors, subtracts from your bottom-line profits.
Take a few minutes to scroll through JADCO’s previous blog posts for additional articles revealing wear resistant steel misconceptions. These are topics your current steel vendor will never tell you.
Click on the magnifying glass above in our navigation bar, and enter the topic of greatest interest to you.
Isn’t it time for you to invite one of our JADCO sales professionals to review your current applications and avoid future errors in your applications?
Together we will review what you are currently using, what you have tried previously and what were your results. Then we can help you achieve real improvements in your process.
Now you understand why we are able to deliver better results to our customers. We think differently by strictly focusing on improving your current results. This is why we deliver better performance results for our customers.
Allow us to help you today by calling 724.452.5252, or email info@jadcomfg.com.
We will schedule a meeting with one of our local wear plate specialists at a time that best fits your schedule.
Remember, the only thing you have to lose by not working with JADCO, are your profits.
