WEAR PLATE TECHNICAL
Confused about the differences of wear plate? We’ve assembled a guide to explain wear principles and the various wear protection options available.
What Exactly Is Wear?
The wearing of metal parts can be defined as the gradual decay or decomposition of the metal itself. When a part becomes so deformed that it cannot perform adequately it must be replaced or rebuilt. While the end results of wear appear similar, the causes of wear are different. For this reason, it is essential to understand the wear factors involved before choosing a wear protection option.
It would be easy to select a surfacing alloy if all metal components were subject to only one type of wear. However, the wear you experience is usually a combination of two or more types of wear. This makes the wear protection decision more complicated.
A hard surfacing alloy should be chosen as a compromise between each wear factor. The initial focus should be on the primary wear factor and then the secondary wear factor(s). For example, if upon examining a worn metal part it is determined that the primary wear factor is abrasion, and the secondary wear factor is light impact, the surfacing alloy chosen should have high abrasion resistance but also a fair amount of impact resistance.
Beware: More Than Hardness
Greater hardness does not always mean greater abrasion resistance or longer wear life. Several alloys may have the same hardness rating but vary greatly in their ability to withstand abrasive wear.
Smoothness Goes A Long Way
The surface finish offered by a wear product is very important when considering the overall wear life of the product, particularly in applications such as truck trays, fan blades, spill faces, and chutes. HC 1650 is the traditional beaded style wear plate with multiple passes of weld beads. Mill spec is a smooth non-directional wear plate USA ideal for long-term carry-back applications. Super glide polished plate is for applications where hang-up, carryback or high moisture content is an issue.
Traditional Wear Products
It is important to choose the correct wear plate for any specific application. The section outlining the different types of wear will help you determine which wear plate to use. The most common names are QT plate or AR plate, both are quench and tempered steel. CCO plate known as Chromium Carbide Overlay or weld overlay (depending on industry naming) is a bimetallic, high chrome overlay fused or welded to a mild steel (A36) backing plate. A CCO plate has a significantly longer wear life for high abrasion applications than a quench and tempered steel. Choosing the correct matrix is important to increase the life cycle of the wear plate and decrease service shutdowns.
What Kind Of Wear Are You Experiencing?
Before choosing the right wear liner, you need to understand which type of wear you are experiencing.
Wear can be divided into 5 main categories:
Abrasive
Adhesive
Corrosive
High temp
Impact
Iron-Based & Non-Ferrous Hard Surfacing Alloys
Surface alloys are used for hard surfacing. There are two major types of surfacing alloys:
Iron-based hard surfacing alloys account for the largest usage of hard surfacing alloys and can be subdivided according to their metallurgical phase or microstructure. Each type of iron-based alloy resists certain forms of wear better and/or more economically than others.
Non-Ferrous Surfacing Alloys
There are two main types of non-ferrous hard surfacing alloys – cobalt-based alloys and nickel-based alloys. Both these alloys offer wear-resistant properties to combat most of the major types of wear. However, due to their higher cost, they are mainly exclusively used in applications where their unique properties are economically justified.