HADFIELD
MN STEEL
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INTRODUCTION
▪ Manganese steel was discovered by Sir Robert Hadfield in 1882.
▪ At the time of this work manganese alloys containing 5% carbon and 20% manganese were all
that was available
▪ This composition, due to its low manganese and high carbon content, prevented its use in the
production of low carbon steels
▪ Hadfield found that in the range of 2.5% to 7.5% Mn, steels were extremely brittle, but once
the manganese content exceeded 10% the steels became remarkably tough.
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INTRODUCTION
▪ He also found that the toughness was further enhanced by quenching in cold water after
heating to approximately 1000°C.
▪ As Hadfield continued to work on his newly discovered material the nominal composition
settled in at 1.2% carbon and 12.5% manganese
▪ This composition is nicely set up by the ferro-manganese alloy that was available (10 to 1,
Mn/C ratio).
▪ This composition is still to this day called Hadfield’s Manganese Steel
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HADFIELD MANGANESE
STEEL
▪ The standard grade of manganese steel (Hadfield’s Manganese) used today has roughly 12%
manganese and 1.15% carbon
▪ This approximate 10 to 1 ratio from Hadfield’s work
▪ The chemistry has not changed much since the alloy’s discovery
▪ By varying the carbon level the desired properties can be optimized
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HEAT TREATMENT
▪ Ideally heat treated manganese steels will have a fully homogenized fine-grained austenitic
microstructure
▪ The typical heat treatment cycle - solution anneal followed by a water quench
▪ Start at room temperature or at an elevated temperature depending on the starting temperature
of the castings
▪ Temperature is gradually raised at a slow to moderate rate until the soaking temperature is
reached
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HEAT TREATMENT
▪ Soaking temperatures are typically high (1100°C) in order to facilitate the dissolution of any
carbide that might be present
▪ It requires a rapid water quench following the high temperature soak
▪ This quench needs to occur immediately after the castings are removed from the heat
treatment furnace
▪ The rate of this quench needs to be high enough to prevent any precipitation of carbides
▪ A slack quench can reduce the toughness of the material dramatically
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TYPICAL MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES
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EFFECTS OF VARIOUS
ELEMENTS: CARBON
▪ Carbon – important alloying element
▪ Supersaturated solution of carbon
▪ Standard manganese steel grades : Mn/C=10
▪ 12% Mn and 1.2% C
▪ Increasing the carbon content raises the yield strength and
lowers the ductility
▪ Increased carbon content - increase in wear resistance
▪ Manufacturers try to maximize carbon contents
▪ Practical limit on carbon content - %C exceeding 1.3% leads
to cracking and undissolved grain boundary carbides become
more prevalent Figure - Effect of carbon upon the tensile
properties of manganese steel, 1-inch 8
section test bars (13% Mn, 0.6% Si, 0.035%P)
MANGANESE
▪ Manganese is an austenite stabilizer and makes this family of alloys possible
▪ It decreases the austenite to ferrite transformation temperature and therefore helps to retain a
fully austenitic structure at room temperature
▪ Alloys with 13% Mn and 1.1% C have a martensite start temperature below -200°C.
▪ Lower limit for Mn content in plain austenitic manganese steel ~ 10%.
▪ Premium alloys with higher carbon contents and additional alloy elements exist with
manganese levels from 16-25% manganese
▪ These alloys are proprietary to their manufacturer.
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NICKEL
▪ Nickel is a strong austenite stabilizer
▪ Ni can prevent transformations and carbide precipitation even at reduced cooling rates
during quenching
▪ Useful in products that have heavy section sizes
▪ Increasing nickel content - increased toughness, a slight drop in tensile strength and has no
effect on the yield strength
▪ Nickel - used in welding filler materials to allow the as-deposited material to be free from
carbides
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MOLYBDENUM
▪ Ms temperature is lowered which further stabilizes the austenite and retards carbide
precipitation
▪ Toughness of the steel is improved by the addition of Mo
▪ Mo is beneficial with heavy section thicknesses
▪ For these castings it is recommended to add molybdenum in the range of 0.9% to 1.2% while
reducing the carbon content to 0.9% to 1.0%.
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WORK HARDENING
▪ The hardness of manganese steel in the solution annealed and water quenched condition is
normally around 220 HB.
▪ It is possible to strain harden this material to around 500 HB by high impact loading
▪ Deformation based martensitic transformation also plays a part in the hardening
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WORK HARDENING
Manganese steel’s rate of work hardening is dependent primarily on two variables.
1. The first factor is the rate and intensity of impacts being received by the material. More
impacts and those of larger magnitude speed the material along to its maximum hardness
level.
2. The next factor is the amount of carbon in the material. The higher the carbon level the
faster the material will work harden in any given service.
▪ In order to add additional wear life to manganese steel parts, they can also be pre-hardened by
explosive hardening.
▪ In this process the surfaces to be hardened are covered with sheet explosives and the pressure
created by the explosion deforms and hardens the surfaces.
▪ Example - Railroad tracks
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WORK HARDENING
▪ Figure gives a typical stress-strain curve for Hadfield manganese steel.
▪ It also gives two tensile samples out of which one is a Hadfield manganese steel and an alloy
steel bar
▪ The alloy steel bar has necked and failed with the normal cup-cone fracture.
▪ The Hadfield manganese steel bar on the other hand necked along its entire length.
▪ Each time the bar starts to yield; the work hardening of that area increases the strength and
prevents further necking until the whole length has necked.
▪ This progression is repeated until failure.
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▪ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RsgAhpI_EM
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APPLICATIONS
▪ Heavy industries like earthmoving, mining, quarrying, oil and gas drilling, steelmaking,
dredging, logging and lumber, and railways
▪ Best wear resistant material choice for many demanding applications.
▪ These applications include (i) gyratory crusher mantles, (ii) concaves, jaw crusher dies, (iii)
cone crusher bowl liners and mantles, (iv) track pads for large mining shovels, and (v)
hammers for many different types of impact crushers
▪ Hadfield manganese steel also finds applications at extremely low temperatures due to its
persistent toughness even at these temperatures
▪ One application of this steel which is not a wear component is in the construction of safes
since this steel resists many of the normal break-in methods
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