Resistance to Abrasive Wear and Volume Fraction of Carbides in Cast High-manganese Austenitic Steel with Composite Structure

Cast Hadfield steel is characterised by high abrasion resistance, provided, however, that it is exposed to the effect of dynamic loads. During abrasion without loading, e.g. under the impact of loose sand jet, its wear resistance drops very drastically. To increase the abrasion resistance of this alloy under the conditions where no pressure is acting, primary vanadium carbides are formed in the metallurgical process, to obtain a composite structure after the melt solidification. The primary, very hard, carbides uniformly distributed in the austenitic matrix are reported to double the wear resistance of samples subjected to the effect of a silicon carbide-water mixture.