What is NOT Wear Steel
“There Is No Greater Waste of Time, Than Doing Something Which Will Make No Difference.”
Installing the best or the worst performing wear plate, takes exactly the same amount of time. Often when you install the lowest price wear plate, it quickly becomes apparent you will be forced to replace it once again in the not-too-distant-future. This means you have to purchase more steel, un-install and re-install it all over again.
What Have You Gained Using Low Dollar Steel? Nothing…
You worked hard to have a good installation. In the end it was simply more time and money wasted.
But It Was Not Your Fault…
Because there are ZERO Industry Standards for wear resistant steel, some steel vendors may try to sell you any steel they have on hand; and claim it is wear resistant. And you will never know until it wears out in weeks rather than years.
Here at JADCO Mfg. Inc., we take pride in offering you the finest USA made alloy steel and Chromium Carbide Clad plates, made in our own factory just north of Pittsburgh, PA. Our trained sales force look forward to assisting you to get your most challenging wear issues under control.
In reviewing our ‘Wear Plate Wednesday’ blog posts, we have told you what you need to look for and which steel to use for the best results in your specific wear applications.
Have You Ever Wondered What Types Of Steel You Should Avoid Using For Wear Plate? If so… then this blog is for you!
Here Are A Few Examples Where These Steels Should NEVER BE USED For Wear Resistant Installations.
A514 or T-1 ® from U.S. Steel, is used for structural building supports.
1. A514 or T1® from U.S. STEEL…
used for structural building supports.
Additional uses are for structural steel I-beams in semi-trailer and earth moving equipment frames. It is very strong, and will take a lot of abuse without cracking. While they contain many of the same alloys as good wear resistant steel, they are heat treated to create strength, not for hardness.
Because the alloys used to give it a greater tensile and yield strength, it also has a slightly higher hardness rating than traditional mild steel. A514 is often sold by local steel warehouses for wear resistant applications because it is a bit harder. However, they are not designed for wear resistant steel applications.
2. Grader Blades
You can make steel harder by adding more Carbon to the steel. With higher Carbon content, you can achieve higher hardness test values. Unfortunately, just adding Carbon without other alloying elements at the same time, creates a more crack sensitive steel. A standard Rule Of thumb in metallurgy; is the higher the percentage of Carbon, the greater the potential to crack. Particularly when subjected to impact.
By adding different alloying elements to the steel such as Nickel, Chrome and Moly; these alloys are the key to combat cracking and increasing the strength for your applications.
Unfortunately, grader blades have ZERO additional alloying elements, just Iron and Carbon. As a result, it doesn’t tolerate impact and will crack easily.
3. Concrete Rebar
One of the strangest applications we have seen was using rebar for wear bars on an excavator bucket. If you search online for ‘rebar-physical-properties’, you will see material strengths listed, but nothing at all for hardness values.
4. Stainless Steel
Several people have used stainless steel as a wear resistant option because it is ‘shiny’, due to the higher Chromium and Nickel content. Wear steels often contain varying amounts of Chromium and Nickel. There are four major types of stainless steel:
i. Austenitic Stainless Steel; this is the most common stainless steel people frequently see. This includes alloys such as 304, 316, and 317. Also called 18-8 Stainless because the common versions contain 18% Chromium and 8% Nickel, but have low Carbon content, usually below 0.08%. Restaurant and food processing equipment is made of Austenitic Stainless, as it has high corrosion resistance because of their chromium content. They are also non-magnetic. If you encounter corrosive wear from caustic chemicals and sulfuric acids used to clean equipment, these are an excellent choice.
ii. Ferritic Stainless Steel is the second-most common form of stainless steel and includes grade 409. These alloys have up to 0.30% Carbon, are magnetic and are designed for high heat applications. This is what your automotive exhaust systems are made from, and why people rarely replace mufflers and tail pipes any more.
iii. Martensitic Stainless Steel is what is used to make kitchen cutlery. You will often see kives listed using 440 stainless steel. It is also magnetic but has about 1.0% Carbon, so after heat treating, the steel will remain hard and retain a cutting edge well.
iv. Duplex Stainless Steel is a blend of ferritic and austenitic stainless steels, where the most common version is 2205 stainless. It has 21% Chromium, 5% Nickel, 0.3% Carbon and 3% Molybdenum. Duplex stainless steel has high strength, and is primarily used in handling high temperature, with highly corrosive chemicals in pulp and paper applications.
2205 has been incorrectly used in wear applications in wood industries. The photo below shows an application where it failed in an abrasive application in just three months.
This is another example where a great product failed, because it was used in the wrong application.
If you look online for the physical properties of 316 stainless or 2205 stainless, you rarely see any information on hardness and nothing on wear resistance. This is because it was not designed or intended to be used in abrasion or impact applications. Used in this manner, they will fail everytime.
What About Manganese Steel?
Manganese steel was designed for impact application wear environments. However, it is another material frequently installed in the wrong application. Using Manganese is preferred for heavy impact applications, yet it is more complicated and highly misunderstood in nearly every other wear application. Manganese steel should NEVER be used where abrasion in part of the wear challenge.
People who have used any of the incorrect examples listed above, likely used a ‘best guess’ or listened to ideas from un-trained people.
Here Is Another Case Where…
“They Didn’t Know, What They Didn’t Know.”
This is where your JADCO Sales Professionals can assist in making certain you use only the correct materials in your most challenging applications.
