Sledgehammer Steel

Sledgehammer Steel is a unique and advanced abrasion-resistant steel that outperforms typical 400-500 HB steels by as much as 2-3 times across various applications. With a special combination of alloying content and heat-treating methods, Sledgehammer steel provides an evolution in wear steel that offers a superior steel while maintaining ease of use.

Some of its benefits include:

Moderate hardness in “as-delivered” state allows for ease of processing operations.
Excellent weldability properties while still being workable, including no pre- or post-heating required for welding.
Work hardens by approx. 70 HB under the “TRIP Effect”.
Significant service benefits.

Sledgehammer steel is ideal for some of the toughest industries out there, including:

Mining
Construction
Foundry
Iron Making
Glass Recycling
Quarries
Cement Plants

Examples of applications include: Hoppers, Grizzly Feeders, and Dozer Blades.

Sledgehammer steel is ideal for bucket liners, excavators, shovels and more.

What is the “TRIP Effect”?

“TRIP Effect” is known as Transformation Induced by Plasticity.

Wear resistance depends not only on the hardness of the steel at delivered state, but also on other properties such as crack resistance, work hardening effect, strength, ductility, softening resistance, etc. The performance in service of given wear resistant steel is strongly influenced by the microstructure obtained after thermal processing. In the case of Sledgehammer steel, a significant improvement of the wear resistance in service is mainly due to the “TRIP Effect”.

Being oil-quenched reduces residual stresses by making the microstructure homogenous.
Work hardens when submitted to local plastic deformations.
Plastic deformation induces a surface hardening phenomenon by the transformation of retained austenite into fresh and very hard martensite.
Leaves material underneath ductile making it the most effective to withstand both abrasion and heavy impact in service.

Sledgehammer

Technical Information for SLEDGEHAMMER Steel

Chemical Composition

Mechanical Properties

** Sledgehammer work hardens to approx. 550- 570 HB, no work hardening properties with other 500 HB steels.

Properties at High Temps

The chemical composition of Sledgehammer steel offers a high softening resistance to the material. This quality allows Sledgehammer steel to be used in hot service conditions at a maximum of 450°C (840°F), while conventional 500 HB water quenched steels are limited to 250°C (480°). It is also possible to process the steel at high temperatures 500-550°C (930°-1020°F) followed by a slow air cooling without any significant drop of hardness (about 30-50 HB).

Some highlights include:

No pre-post heating of plate required.
Sledgehammer steel can be welded using all standard processes.
Sledgehammer steel can be cut and welded with low-hydrogen rod.

SLEDGEHAMMER Steel Case Studies

Case Study #1: Iron Ore Company of Canada & RMS (Local Fabricator)

This is for North Panel Tripper Car Liners.

Note: Dollar values not included for wages of welders and mechanics for change overs.

Results

It would have cost $19,728 (8 x AR450 panels) PLUS wages of the welders and mechanics to assemble 8 panels to do the same job as 1 Sledgehammer/Manganese panel.
There is an overall savings of about $10,000 on material alone. Of you factor in 8 hours/changeover x 8 changeovers. there will be significant savings and significant reduction in downtime.
Sledgehammer/Manganese steel lasted more than 2 years, and is still working at the time of reporting.

Case Study #2: Gold Ore

This is for underground crusher – upper feed chute liner package.

Scenario One – 80mm 500 HB replaced with Sledgehammer

**Total cost includes raw material and install ($80k)

Results

By simply changing 500 HB to Sledgehammer, with all other factors being equal, the results show a cost savings of 37% in material alone.
By increasing the thickness of the Sledgehammer by 20%, results grew exponentially to a cost savings of 66%.

Case Study #3: Mine Specific Study

This is for the 9400 digger wear bucket. The below table shows the maintenance budget cost savings.

Results

Typical bucket maintenance cost saving/rebuild = $60,000/bucket duty.
Based on the average $l00 – $l02k Digger Bucket Rebuild cost, this represents a 50% Mobile Maintenance Cost Savings per machine.

Case Study #4: Yandi Iron Ore Mine

This shows the effectiveness of using grizzly steel for wear plate service.

500 HB Water Quenched Wear Plate after 3 months service.
Primary Crusher Vibratory Grizzle Deck – Handling ROM Ore-Hard Lump combined with High Silica Abrasive Fines.

Sledgehammer Grizzle finger after 3 months service.
Sledgehammer Grizzle Deck Fingers are now used extensively throughout the Pilbara, delivering significant service life improvement across the iron ore industry. There is 100%+ service life improvement.