Stainless Hadfield steel in comparison

The well-known Hadfield steel X120Mn12 still has broad applications in the mineral processing industry. Especially under impact loading Hadfield steel displays good wear resistance due to its high cold work ability. However, Hadfield steel is not corrosion resistant. This gap of a wear-resistant and at the same time corrosion resistant steel is closed by the new developed steel X40CrMnN15-I7, which can be called high-strength because of a yield strength of 494 MPa. The following investigation characterizes the wear behaviour of steel X40CrMnN15-17 with 0,4 Ma.-% N in comparison to the standard steels X5CrNil8-10 and X120Mn12 under impact and grooving load as well as in single scratch tests. X-ray investigations give no evidence of deformation-induced martensite in the wear surface of steel X40CrMnN15-17. In contrast, small quantities of epsilon-martensite are detected in steel X120Mn12 and also in X5CrNil8-10, which additionally provided large quantities of alpha-martensite. Application areas of steel X40CrMnN15-I7 are seen both in the wear protection sector as e.g. impact plates and within the range of crash relevant construction units for the automotive industry.