YOUR WEAR PLATE MAY BE TO BLAME FOR EXCESS SCRAP
JADCO2022-12-13T11:43:40-05:00People outside the glass industry are not aware how rapidly cullet can destroy steel wear plate.
You production equipment wear zones fight a continuous battle against abrasion:
- Handling soda ash and other raw materials
- Cullet handling
- Floor liners
- Side liners
- Batch mixer paddles
- Feeder liners
- Discharge chutes

Cullet continuously falling onto this feed screw has destroyed the equipment. You can plainly see how this abrasion removes steel.
When your AR500 wear plate contains higher Nickel levels, you are unknowingly increasing your scrap levels due to Nickel contamination.
Why Is Nickel Bad For Glass?
Nickel contamination causes inclusions in the glass, leading to premature fracturing. Most Nickel issues occur from glass abrasion as your AR steel wear plate deteriorates.
Standard AR steel contains too much Nickel causing excessive scrap. Yet most steel distributors tell you AR500 is what you need to use for better wear resistance.
And The Bad News Using AR500 In Your Equipment
Nickel content levels control if a wear plate is the same hardness for the entire thickness of the steel or is only hard on the top and bottom surfaces. This means the majority of your wear steel is not much harder than mild steel.
If you have noticed your wear plate rapidly wear away after it appeared to work well; this is what happened. You finally wore though the thin hardened outer layer, and now you are into the softer center like the crème filling in an Oreo® cookie.

When the 0.020” thick harder outer surface wears away, the softer middle wears away rapidly. If you have seen your wear steel look like this photo, that is what has occurred.
Even More Bad News
This greater wear rate is introducing Nickel into your system at a higher frequency, causing more scrap volume.
Carefully reviewing your scrap levels with your maintenance schedule, you have betting odds your scrap is reduced after changing to new wear plate. After a period of time, the scrap level creeps up again due to the faster wear pace.
But My Scrap Levels Drop When I Change Out My Wear Plate
The majority of AR400/AR450/AR500 steel will show little wear after it is installed, and your scrap volume goes down. If you compare your scrap volume data with the maintenance schedule, you will have good betting odds that after a period of time after some wear has occurred on the plate, your scrap percentage begins to climb again.
What Can You Use To Extend Equipment Life With Minimum Nickel?
JADCO Chromeweld 600 is the premier wear resistant steel product designed for glass manufacturers. Chromeweld 600 has the lowest Nickel levels available and is 100% American made.
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. When your usual wear plate gives out, give JADCO a shout!

Chromeweld 600 is a chrome carbide overlay (CCO) plate with high hardness chrome carbide welded onto a mild steel base plate.
The glass industry maximum allowable standard for Nickel is 0.25%.
JADCO reduces this level another 20% using strict quality controls in our manufacturing process. The result achieves less than 0.20% total Nickel in Chromeweld 600, which has been acknowledged by most glass producers.
Chromeweld 600 is used in most glass production wear zones from handling soda ash and other raw materials, through cullet handling.
Wear applications such as batch mixer paddles, floor liners and side liners have seen significantly increased wear life. The feeder liners under the float line to the cullet collection discharge chute and cullet feeder show substantially longer life.
What About Your High Heat Wear Applications?
AR500 type wear plates are heat treated alloy steels, and are tempered between 400° F and 500° F. Using them in higher heat areas anneals or softens the steel wear resistance. This results in even faster wear and more Nickel into your system.
Furnace feed chutes and other high heat locations are perfect for Chromeweld 600. JADCO gives you even more wear life ROI with the ability to rotate your cullet discharge chutes so you get extended wear life from all four sides.
Another benefit of higher wear resistance is it lowers introduction of Nickel in your process. If you use AR400/AR500 type wear steel and the overlay plate delivers more than three times more wear life, the AR400/AR500 plate potentially introduces Nickel three times faster into your process due to the increased wear over same time period.
When the wear plate lasts longer and wears less, it introduces less Nickel into your system. For the past 40 years we have focused exclusively on delivering consistent, longer life 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. When your usual wear plate gives out, give JADCO a shout!