Heat Treat Industry News
May 26, 2010
The Influence of Manganese in Steel
They say that everyone and everything gets 15 minutes of fame somewhere, sometime, somehow. Well, for manganese, its time is now. The effect of a particular alloying element on both the steelmaking process and the steel’s response to heat treatment depends on the individual element and on its (complex) interactions with other elements, either individually or collectively. Manganese is considered, next to carbon, the most important elemental addition to steel. Let’s learn more.
Strictly from a heat treater’s perspective, the purpose of adding alloying elements to steel is to enhance the material’s response to heat treatment, which in turn results in improvement of the mechanical and physical properties of the steel. Alloying additions can be made for one or more of the following reasons:
To increase hardenability
To help reduce part distortion
To produce a finer grain size
To improve tensile strength without appreciably lowering ductility
To avoid quench cracking
To gain toughness
To achieve better wear resistance
To improve hot hardness
To achieve better corrosion resistance
Beside the role manganese plays in deoxidation of steel and modification of sulfides present, it is a major alloying element, has complex interactions with carbon and is used to control inclusions. Manganese is beneficial to surface quality in all carbon ranges with the exception of rimmed steels (<0.15%C) and is particularly beneficial in high-sulfur steels. Manganese contributes to strength and hardness but to a lesser degree than carbon. The increase depends on the carbon content – higher-carbon steels being affected more by manganese. Higher-manganese steels decrease ductility and weldability (but to a lesser extent than carbon). Manganese also increases the rate of carbon penetration during carburizing.
by Daniel H. Herring - April 29, 2010
Read More....
http://www.industrialheating.com/Articles/Column/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000812724
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