The Effect of Si and Mn on Microstructure and Selected Properties of Cr-Ni Stainless Steels

Cast stainless steel of the Cr-Ni duplex type is used, among others, for the cast parts of pumps and valves handling various chemically aggressive media. Therefore, the main problem discussed in this article is the problem of abrasion wear resistance in a mixture of SiC and water and resistance to electrochemical corrosion in a 3% NaCl- H2O solution of selected cast steel grades, i.e. typical duplex cast steel, high silicon and manganese duplex cast steel, and Cr-Ni austenitic cast steel (type AISI 316L). The study shows that the best abrasion wear resistance comparable to Ni-Hart cast iron was obtained in the cast duplex steel, where Ni was partially replaced with Mn and N. This cast steel was also characterized by the highest hardness and matrix microhardness among all the tested cast steel grades. The best resistance to electrochemical corrosion in 3% NaCl- H2O solution showed the cast duplex steel with high content of Cr, Mo and N. The addition of Ni plays rather insignificant role in the improvement of corrosion resistance of the materials tested.