Wear resistant steel: R&D, markets and sustainability
Wear resistant steels have always played a vital role in industry. From mining to construction, from cement production to machine building, they are everywhere. Today, let’s analyze the latest trends in wear resistant steel in terms of achievements and innovations, market dynamics and price trends, as well as sustainable development.
Latest results and innovation trends(China rapidly rise as a technology newcomer)
Nowadays, with the rapid development of science and technology, the field of wear resistant steel is experiencing a change; a series of impressive results continue to emerge, and the trend of innovation is becoming clearer.
High-performance materials achievements
LY steel successfully debuted a new type of high manganese wear-resistant steel in China, with carbon content of more than 1.0wt% (mass percentage) and alloy content of more than 20 times that of ordinary steel. Compared with the mold casting production process, continuous casting production can greatly improve product quality, grain refinement to grade 9, carbide control to achieve the expected goals, product toughness increased by more than 2 times, work hardening efficiency than conventional high manganese wear-resistant steel increased by more than 15%, impact wear resistance increased by about 30%. After the test, LY steel’s new high manganese wear-resistant steel trial products have good surface quality and excellent mechanical properties, which can ensure the processing performance of products such as bending and molding. This new type of high manganese wear-resistant steel can significantly reduce the frequency of parts replacement, greatly extend the service life of end customers’ equipment, and realize quality, cost and efficiency for users.
Improvement of wear plate performance
Typically the properties of wear-resistant steels are influenced by two factors. The first is the chemical composition and the second is the production process.
New production with optimized performance
Recently, Xianggang successfully achieved and delivered NM600 ultra-high-strength wear-resistant steel plates for construction machinery with a maximum thickness of 80mm. It fills the blank of 600HB high steel grade ultra-thick specification wear resistant steel in China. The total amount of delivery is more than 800 tons, and it took only 3 months from the project development to the completion of delivery, which shows the strong technical and industrialization ability of Xianggang.
As a representative of international advanced wear resistant steel, NM600 has both extremely high strength and excellent toughness. In the face of technical difficulties, Xianggang’s R&D team innovated and optimized the steelmaking process and adopted precise hydrogen control technology to significantly reduce the hydrogen content and inhibit delayed cracking. Tackling rolling and heat treatment difficulties through the “band temperature loading furnace + gradient temperature control” rolling process to ensure the stability of plate shape and thickness direction performance uniformity. The products have a performance qualification rate of 100%, and the uniformity of cross-section hardness far exceeds the industry standard.
Xianggang is the first to realize the full thickness of 6 mm ~ 80 mm specification coverage, especially 80 mm ultra-thick plate mass production, is the first in the industry, which can further enhance the performance of wear resistant steel in the mining machinery, construction equipment, and other heavy-duty areas. The product’s wear resistant life has been increased by more than 30% under extreme working conditions, which has been praised by overseas customers.
New alloys with optimized performance
In the past, conventional wear-resistant steels were often hardened to enhance wear resistance. However, this approach has obvious disadvantages, often at the expense of processing performance. For example, in production, traditional wear resistant steel in the processing is prone to serious tool wear, machining accuracy is difficult to ensure, and other issues arise, which brings a lot of trouble to the manufacturing industry.
Nowadays, researchers are actively exploring new directions and building new alloy systems. A new generation of wear resistant steel based on high Ti alloys, its research and development results are remarkable. The R&D team is innovative in the steel matrix to add a large number of diffuse distributions of TiC particles, successfully and significantly improving the wear resistance of steel. According to relevant research data, when the Ti content of the steel is not less than 0.5%, its relative wear resistance can be increased to more than 1.5 times compared with conventional steel without Ti. Among them, micron-sized TiC particles are like a strong “small shield,” which can effectively prevent abrasive grains from sliding and even break or passivate the abrasive grains, greatly reducing the damage of the abrasive grains on the substrate, while nanometer-sized particles are like “microscopic architects,” which can help to The matrix organization is refined, allowing the toughness and plasticity of the steel to be significantly improved. It is this synergistic effect of multi-scale TiC particles that cleverly breaks the dilemma of traditional wear-resistant steel, which is difficult to balance wear resistance and processability, and provides an ideal material for high-end equipment manufacturing, which is expected to help the high-end manufacturing industry to realize new breakthroughs.
Production innovation
Various wear resistant steel manufacturers keep improving the technology to produce higher quality wear resistant steel.
Production technology breakthrough
On March 1, 2024, the manganese series of steel grades jointly developed by the Second Steelmaking Plant of Wusteel and the Process Technology Center of Hesteel Materials Institute was successfully launched. The surface quality and performance achieve the standard requirements and will be used for trial production of products in metallurgy and energy fields. Wusteel has become the first wide plate enterprise in China that can produce all kinds of high quality manganese series steel plates by continuous casting process.
Manganese series steel plate produced by continuous casting process has the characteristics of high purity, uniform composition, stable organization, etc., and the quality indexes and performance indexes are much higher than the international average level, which effectively reduces the cost, improves the competitiveness of the market, and establishes a new milestone in the high-quality production of manganese steel products.
Production mode innovation
In Industry 4.0, intelligent manufacturing has become a key force in reshaping the pattern of wear-resistant steel production. For example, the “JIT+C2M” intelligent factory crafted by Nanshan Steel Group has an extremely forward-looking intelligent process. Workers holding tablet computers carefully enter the customer’s customized product data, which cover the composition ratio of wear-resistant steel, hardness requirements, size specifications, and even special performance indicators and other detailed information. After confirming that there are no errors and clicking “Start,” the smart factory is instantly activated.
Industrial robots, such as trained craftsmen, with precision algorithms and flexible mechanical arms, accurately cut and shape the steel, with errors controlled in a very small range; drones, with advanced sensors and navigation systems, shuttling through the air, efficiently transporting materials, but also real-time collection of production images and data, feedback to the central control system; warehousing robots guided by an intelligent warehouse management system, flexibly classified storage of finished products to ensure that the Warehouse robots, guided by an intelligent warehouse management system, flexibly categorize and store finished products to ensure rapid release.
They work closely together to realize the whole process of automation and intelligence from raw material processing to finished product storage. This model greatly improves production efficiency; the original production cycle of several days is greatly shortened, and labor costs are significantly reduced. More importantly, it can quickly respond to the diversified needs of customers, quickly customize products, and stand out in the competitive market, which undoubtedly represents the future development direction of wear-resistant steel production.
Analysis of market dynamics and price trends
In general, the market demand for wear-resistant steel will continue to increase. The development of infrastructure is the focus of many developing countries in the next ten years. At the same time, developed countries have a certain economic foundation, will tend to develop an environmental protection industry, and indirectly also drive the demand for wear-resistant steel. Steel prices change every day; wear-resistant steel is no exception. Raw materials, policies, and economic trends will directly affect the price of wear-resistant steel.
Market supply and demand
From the supply side, major iron and steel enterprises have continuously increased their investment in R&D and production of wear-resistant steel, and the production capacity has been gradually increased. For example, with the successful development of NM600 ultra-high-strength wear-resistant steel plates for construction machinery, Xianggang Steel has achieved batch production capacity and delivered a total of more than 800 tons. These products have been sold well in many large-scale construction projects at home and abroad due to their excellent performance. For example, in large open-pit mines, the service life of the equipment has been significantly extended by using Xianggang’s NM600 wear-resistant steel plates for key components such as crusher liners and conveyor belt rollers. In the field of heavy construction machinery manufacturing, the wear-resistant steel for loader buckets and excavator teeth has significantly improved operational efficiency and gained a good reputation in the market.
In terms of demand, with the promotion of global infrastructure construction, the continuous development of the mining industry, and the recovery of the manufacturing industry, the demand for wear-resistant steel shows a growing trend. The “Belt and Road” initiative promotes the countries along the route to vigorously carry out transportation, energy, and other infrastructure projects. In Southeast Asia, a number of countries are building new highways and railroad networks. Especially the rapid development of emerging economies, infrastructure construction projects, the increase in mining machinery, engineering equipment, and other strong demand, indirectly driven by the demand for wear-resistant steel.
Price impact factors
In the formation of wear-resistant steel prices, raw material prices occupy an extremely important position, known as one of the key factors affecting the price of wear-resistant steel. Wear-resistant steel production needs iron ore, coke, and other basic raw materials; any slight fluctuation in their prices, like the butterfly effect in general, directly affects the production cost of wear-resistant steel. Iron ore as the main raw material for steelmaking, its price trend by the global mining volume, the international political situation, transportation costs, and other complex factors. Once the iron ore prices rise, wear-resistant steel production enterprises in the procurement of raw materials when the expenditure is bound to increase significantly, and then push up the production cost of wear-resistant steel. Similarly, coke, as an important fuel and reducing agent in the steelmaking process, its price fluctuations will also have a direct impact on the production cost of wear-resistant steel.
The macroeconomic environment can not be ignored; the slowdown in economic growth will inhibit the demand for wear-resistant steel, which in turn affects the price. For example, if the real estate market control leads to a reduction in new construction projects, the demand for steel, including wear-resistant steel, will also decline, pushing prices lower.
Sustainable development
While developing industries, the world is advocating energy conservation and emission reduction in order to achieve sustainable development.
Resource conservation and efficiency gains
The use of wear-resistant steels helps to conserve resources. Excellent wear-resistant performance can significantly extend the service life of equipment, reduce the frequency of equipment replacement, and thereby reduce the consumption of raw materials. Take the cement industry as a typical example; there will be a large number of mechanical equipment in the cement production process of continuous operation, powder selector blades, vertical mill lining, and other key components in the long-term high-intensity working environment, which is very susceptible to wear and tear. In the past, these parts were usually made of ordinary steel; frequent wear and tear made them need to be replaced frequently, resulting in a large amount of steel waste. It has been greatly improved by the use of wear-resistant steel to manufacture these parts. The properties of wear-resistant steel make it able to withstand long-term scouring, greatly reducing the wear and tear of steel consumption. According to statistics, China’s cement production is about 1 billion tons per year. About 1.8 million tons of steel are consumed annually due to mechanical wear and tear; if using the wear-resistant steel, it can greatly reduce this consumption.
Wear resistant steel drums
In addition, the benefits of a longer equipment life span go beyond saving raw materials but also include energy consumption. The entire process of producing a new piece of equipment, from the mining and processing of raw materials to the manufacture and assembly of components, requires the consumption of a large amount of energy, covering a variety of forms of energy such as coal, electricity, and oil. Extending the service life of existing equipment through the use of wear-resistant steel reduces the number of equipment replacements. This equates to an indirect reduction in energy consumption during the production of new equipment. This initiative effectively improves the efficiency of energy utilization, which is of far-reaching strategic significance in the context of the current global advocacy of energy conservation, emission reduction, and green development. It not only helps enterprises to reduce production costs and enhance competitiveness in the market but also plays a positive role in promoting the sustainable development of the society.
Wear resistant steel hopper
Protect the environment.
During the production process, some companies have reduced environmental pollution by optimizing their processes. For example, new technologies used in the research and development process may reduce emissions of waste gas and wastewater in the production process. From the user’s perspective, wear-resistant steel reduces the emission of dust and other pollutants from equipment due to wear and tear. In some mining and building construction, the dust generated by the wear and tear of equipment will pollute the air, and using wear-resistant steel can effectively reduce this situation, which is conducive to improving the working environment and atmospheric quality. It is also a positive significance for environmental protection.
Latest breakthroughs of wear-resistant steels in China’s market
Conclusion
Wear-resistant steel has shown unique charm and great potential in R&D innovation, market dynamics, and sustainable development. With the continuous progress of technology and market changes, we have reason to believe that wear-resistant steel will play a more important role in future industrial development.
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