THE EFFECT OF CARBON, CHROMIUM AND SILICON CONTENT ON WEAR-RESISTANCEOF FERRITIC FE-CR-C CAST ALLOYS

A semi-empirical model describing wear resistance of Fe-Cr-C white cas t irons as a function of chemical composition and wear conditions has been used to analyse the effects of alloy composition. A wear criterio n has been developed and then used to define an optimum alloy composit ion for a given set of wear conditions. The analysis showed clearly th at differing wear conditions require considerably different alloy comp ositions. For a set of wear conditions analysed in this work, the opti mum C content appears to depend on the Si level. In particular, the fo llowing three compositions are recommended: (i) approximate to 2% C an d 0.16% Si; (2) approximate to 1% C and 0.37% Si; and (3) approximate to 0.5% C and 0.5% Si. The Cr content is not critical to wear resistan ce and should be selected using other criteria such as high temperatur e corrosion resistance. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.