Wear characteristics of heat-treated hadfield austenitic manganese steel for engineering application

The wear behaviour was investigated of heat treated Hadfield austenitic man-ganese steel (HAMnS). The wear test was carried out using spin on disc appa-ratus under different loading loads and speed conditions. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM), an X-ray diffractometer and micro-hardness testing ma-chines were used for examining the morphology, compositions and to meas-ure the hardness of the manganese steel, respectively. The results of the wear test showed that the sliding speed-time interactions effect gave the most significant effect on the austenitic manganese steel. The solution heat treat-ment programme increased the wear resistance of the alloy steel under in-creasing load, speed and time. The as-cast microstructure was characterized by heterogeneously dispersed chromium carbides second phase particle, and was responsible for the observed non-uniform wear rate. In regard to the solution heat treated HAMnS, the segregated carbides were dissolved at 1050 °C and uniformly dispersed within the matrix of its microstructure after rapid water quenching to room temperature. This later development was responsible for the uniform and improved wear resistance of the manganese steel casting. This work demonstrated significantly that there is a direct rela-tionship between the second phase carbides, their distribution and the wear rate pattern of HAMnS casting.