Three-body impact wear study on conventional and new P/M + HIPed wear resistant materials

A new hammer-mill type impact wear testing facility was built for impact wear testing and characterization. Tests with the hammer-mill impact wear device were carried out on conventional wear resistant materials such as Mn-steels of different compositions, white cast iron, and on new P/M+HIPed wear resistant materials. To verify the validity in using this laboratory wear testing apparatus, wear behavior and worn surfaces obtained on conventional and new Mn-steels generated from this device were compared with wear phenomena and worn surfaces developed in industrial applications, i.e. from certain types of rock crushers. The strain hardening effect in different Mn-steel grades was studied first. Second, the wear resistance of materials with different properties was studied using two different grades of abrasive. With silica sand (high hardness, low compressive strength), conventional Mn-steel and white cast iron perform in a manner comparable with the P/M+HIPed materials. With volcanite sand (low hardness, very high compressive strength), the P/M+HIPed wear resistant materials appear to have the best wear resistance.