Eliminating Heat Treatment of Hadfield Steel in Stress Abrasion Wear Applications

The objective of this investigation was to design a Hadfield steel (ASTM A128 Standard Specification for Steel Castings, Austenitic Manganese) while eliminating typical energy-intensive heat treatment. Four Hadfield steel heats (MS1, MS2, MS3 and MS4) were produced using varying amounts of Mg-modifier to investigate the effect of the Mg-modification on the variance in the proeutectoid needle-like cementite in the reference steel (MS); the detection of austenite grain size; hardness (HV); abrasion wear resistance; and impact toughness. The results show that Mg modification of the molten Hadfield steel leads to austenite grain refinement and significantly improves wear abrasion resistance, hardness (HV), as well as a sharp increase in toughness (up to 250%) in the MS3 heat compared to non-heat treated samples. As a result, the steel can be used in the as-cast state without long-term heat treatment in low and medium stress abrasion conditions.