Chemical

Engineering
Materials
EFFECT OF ALLOYING
ELEMENT
Chromium
 Cheapest alloying element.
 It form chromium carbide in steel and increase the
hardening power.
 Chromium impedes grain growth in heating to some extent
and retains the hardness at elevated temperature.
 In terms of mechanical properties:
 Increase hardness
 Decrease ductility
 Increase tensile strength
 Increase elastic limit
 Toughness get slightly lowered.
 It also imparts corrosion resistance.
 Added in about 30 % of iron.
Nickel
 Non-carbide forming element and soluble in any proportion to iron.
 It prevents excess grain growth at elevated temperature.
 It stabilize the austenite phase thus lowers the critical temperature of
steel. This helps during heat treatment.
 Nickel can be added upto 50 %.
 If added as 2 – 5%, it imparts:
 Great strength
 Good harness with high elastic limit
 Good ductility
 Good resistance to corrosion
 Decreases machinability
Manganese
 It forms manganese carbide which joins the iron carbide to a complex
unit.
 It raises solubility of carbon, lowers the critical point and widens
hardening range.
 For hard microstructures on quenching, manganese is more preferable
than nickel.
 It is deoxidizer and desulphurizer.
 It can be added in the range of 0.4 – 2.0 % and 11 to 14 %.
 The lower % increases hardness, strength, wear resistance and tensile
strength.
 It lowers the tendency of distortion during heat treatment.
 The higher %, make the steel permanently non-magnetic and increase
work hardening properties.
Desulphurization of Hot Metal
 Removal of sulphur from hot metal is called desulphurization of hot
metal.
 Sulphur is a desirable element in steel when good machinability is
required from the steel product.
 However it is an unwanted element in most of the applications of steel
due to the following reasons:
 Sulphur affects both internal and surface quality of steel
 Sulphur contributes to the steel brittleness and when it exists in sulphide
phase it acts as a stress raiser in steel products.
 It forms undesirable sulphides which promotes granular weakness and
cracks in steel during solidification.
 It has adverse effect on the mechanical properties.
 It lowers the melting point and intergranular strength and cohesion of
steel.
Vanadium
 forms complex carbide with carbon.
 In combination with chromium and nickel greatly strengthen the steel.
 0.15 – 2.0 % vanadium is used.
 It acts as deoxdisers and also remove nitrogen.
 Less than 0.2% addition of vanadium increases the:
 Tensile strength
 Elastic limit
 Yield strength
 Resistance to shock
 Hardness.
Molybdenum
 It retains grain growth at high temperature.
 It provide good hardening.
 It is added from 0.20 – 0.70 %.
 It get dissolved into gamma and alpha phase of steel.
 It is used to:
 improve tensile strength
 Improve wear resistance
 Application: used in rolled sections as forging and casting.
 Also applied where heat resistance is required, however due to high cost of
molybdenum applications are limited.
Tungsten
3. Tungsten in the form of tungsten carbide
 Gives steel high hardness even at red heats.
 Promotes fine grains
 Resists heat
 Promote strength at elevated temperatures
 It is used with chromium, vanadium, molybdenum, or
manganese to produce high speed steel used in cutting
tools.
 Tungsten steel is said to be "red-hard" or hard enough
to cut after it becomes red-hot.
Titanium

 Very strong, very lightweight metal that can be used alone

or alloyed with steels.
 It is added to steel to give them high strength at high
temperatures.
 Modern jet engines used titanium steels.
 It prevents localized depletion of chromium in
stainless steels during long heating
 Prevents formation of austenite in high chromium
steels
 Reduces martensitic hardness and hardenability in
medium chromium steels.
Silicon
 Used to increase the resiliency of steel for making
springs.
 It increases the strength properties especially elastic
limit without loss of ductility.
 Silicon is an important alloying element (0.2 - 0.7%) in
certain high-yield point structural steels.
 If silicon exceeds 0.60-2.2%, product is classed as alloy
steel. Increasing silicon increases resiliency (elasticity)
of steel for spring applications. Improves oxidation
resistance
 Strengthens low alloy steels
 Acts as a deoxidizer
Phosphorus
 Small quantities up to 0.2% in low carbon steels increases
hardness, strength and corrosion resistance.
 Phosphorus increases strength and hardness.
 In some steels, high phosphorus content is undesirable
because it decreases ductility and impact toughness.
 It is undesirable in high carbon steels on account of
excessive loss of ductility.
 It improves machinability in lower carbon steels and
improves resistance to atmospheric corrosion.
Sulphur
 Found as iron sulphide.
 It is added upto 0.05%
 With increase in composition of sulphur brittleness increases at
1194 C.
 When obtained as manganese sulphide, it do not affect the
metal as its melting point is higher than iron sulphide.
 Addition of sulphur affect:
 Tensile strength
 Yield point
 Fatigue limit
 Decrease corrosion resistance
Common Alloy steels
Hastlloy…
 HASTELLOY alloy is a nickel-chromium-iron-
molybdenum alloy
 Composition: Ni : 47, Cr: 22, Fe: 18, Mo:9, Co:1.5,
W:0.6, C:0.10, Mn:1*, Si:1*, B:0.008*.(Hastelloy-X)
 W: tungsten
 B: boron
 Possesses an exceptional combination of oxidation
resistance, machine ability and high-temperature
strength.
 It has also been found to be exceptionally resistant to stress-
corrosion cracking in petrochemical applications.
Haste alloy…
 Possesses outstanding resistance to non-oxidizing acids,
such as hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid.
 HASTELLOY alloy has excellent forming and welding
characteristics.
 It can be forged and, because of its good ductility, can be
cold worked.
 Can be welded by both manual and automatic methods
including shielded metal arc(covered electrodes), gas
tungsten arc (TIG) and gas metal arc (MIG).
Haste alloy…
 HASTELLOY alloy is available in the form of plate, sheet,
strip, bar, wire, covered electrodes, pipe and tubing.
 Used for many applications including pressure vessels,
nuclear reactors, chemical reactors, as pipes and valves in
chemical industry.
 Used in the chemical process industry for retorts, muffles,
catalyst support grids, furnace baffles, tubing for pyrolysis
operations and flash drier components.
 Widely used in gas turbine engines for combustion zone
components such as transition ducts, combustor cans, spray
bars and flame holders as well as in after burners, tailpipes
and cabin heaters.
Different types of Hastlloy…

 Hastelloy B-3
 Hastelloy C-276
 Hastelloy C-4
 Hastelloy G
 Hastelloy X
 Hayens 250 alloy
 Hayens 230 alloy
 Haste alloy C-22
 Common alloy steel
Alloy steel Additive range Applications
Nickel steels
A < 6 % nickel + 0.1 – 0.55 % C + 0.3 Used for parts subjected to alternate stresses,
– 0.8 % Mn impacts and shocks.
B 20 – 30 % Ni + 0.4 – 0.5 % C Extremely tough, highly resistance to sea water,
steam and hot gases.
It also have low coefficient of expansion therefore
used in steam turbines, combustion engines.
C 30 – 40 % Ni + < 1% other alloying Used in measuring instruments and devices as it
element has negligible coefficient of expansion.
D 50 % or more Ni Used in communication systems.
Nickel-chrome steel
Mild nickel 0.2 – 0.3 % C + 0.3 – 0.6 % Mn + 3 Used in crane shaft, axles, and parts where higher
chrome – 3.7 % Ni + 0.4 – 0.8 % Cr strength and lightness is required.
Medium nickel 0.25 – 0.35 % C + 0.25 – 0.55 % Mn Used in highly stressed parts such as connecting
chrome + 3 – 3.75 % Ni + 0.5 – 0.8 % Cr rods, piston rods, etc.
High tensile 0.3 % C + 0.5 % Mn + 4 % Ni + 1 – Used in highly stressed parts.
nickel chrome 1.5 % Cr
Air hardening 0.25 – 0.32 % C + 0.35 – 0.65 Mn + It is cooled in air. It is very tough, hard and
nickel chrome 3.75 – 4.5 % Ni + 1 – 1.5 % Cr strong. Used in gears, tubes, etc.
 Cont...
 Nickel chrome steel gets brittle when slowly cooled down after 500 C.
 When tungsten and molybdenum is added into nickel chrome steel, it increases
the tensile strength.
 Also on heating, resistance to softening increases.
Chromium Molybdenum Steel
 Cr composition can be in the range of 0.4 – 10% with 0.2 – 1.5 % Mo.
 Low composition steel:
 It has good welding properties and applied in boilers, drums, boiler tubes
steam piping.
 Medium composition steel:
 Used for heavily loaded bolts, studs, gears, high pressure fittings, rotors,
shafts etc.
 High % Cr:
 Used for acid and corrosion resisting applications.
Cont...
Nickel chromium molybdenum steels
 the brittleness of the steel get eliminated when 0.3 – 0.6 % Mo is added.
The addition of Mo to Ni-Cr steel enables the % of Mn leading to increased
strength whereas by addition of Mn reduce the requirement of Ni thus steel
gets cheaper.
 Ni-Cr-Mo steel is Ni-Cr steel but quite less costly.
Nickel chromium vanadium steels
 Never used as a sole alloying element, always used in conjunction with
Ni-Cr.
 It directly affect the hardening of steel.
 Not used beyond 0.2 %.
 It is an very good deoxidizing agent, thus improve the mechanical
properties and fatigue strength.
Cont...
Chrome Silicon Manganese steel
 Cr-Si-Mn steel is extensively used in engineering industries.
 It contain 0.17 – 0.39 % C + 0.9 – 1.2% Si + 0.8 – 1.1% Mn + 0.8 –
1.0% Cr.
 It has good weldability and ductility.
 It can be easily formed and bent.
 Steel with higher carbon available as plates, pipes, bars, etc.
 Limitations:
 Do have high hardness.
List of standards…

 ASTM: American Society For Testing Material

 AISI: American Iron Standard Institute.
 ANSI: American National Standards Institute.
 ASME: American Society of Mechanical Engineers