Extra-hard wear plate

Hardox 550, produced by SSAB Oxelösund, is the first wear plate with a hardness of 550 Brinell. Its structure is said to guarantee a longer service life (up to 60% more compared to 500 HBW products), reduce repair costs and downtime and allow more precise maintenance planning.

The quenched and tempered martensitic steel was designed with the specific needs of the recycling, quarrying and mining industries in mind. It is suitable for a range of heavy-abrasion applications including hammers, shredders and cutters, shrouds, linings and bolt-on cutting edges. The challenge for SSAB Oxelösund was to develop a product that was not only harder than 500 Brinell, but allowed easy profiling, welding and machining.

The increased hardness of Hardox 550 means that it can resist the roughest wear without denting or distorting. Unlike manganese steel, which only reaches 550 Brinell when exposed to extreme wear, Hardox 550 always performs at 550 HBW.

SSAB Oxelösund used a three-step process to ensure the increased hardness did not compromise Hardox 550’s crack tolerance; this comprised: additional grain refinement through further plate processing; improved plate-handling routines to secure an outstanding surface finish to reduce potential points of crack initiation; and an homogenous microstructure combined with a low level of impurities.

Although tougher and harder, Hardox 550 can be easily machined, welded or cut in the same machinery used for ordinary 500 HBW plates.