Thin Solid Films, 45 ( 1977) 34 I-347

$3 Elsevier Sequoia S.A.. Lausanne-Printed in the Netherlands 341

BORONIZING FOR EROSION RESISTANCE*

R. H. BIDDULPH
Borax Consolidated, Chessington, Surrey (Gt. Britain)
(Received April 14, 1977; accepted April 14, 1977)

Boronizing is a diffusion process analogous to carburizing and nitriding. It is

achieved by heating parts in a pack. One layer or two may be formed, depending on
the boron potential of the pack. A single layer is generally better for wear resistance
than a duplex layer. Other methods such as salt bath or gas phase boronizing are
available.
The layer is very hard and confers great resistance both to sliding wear and to
abrasive wear. With mild steel, sliding wear can be reduced by up to three orders of
magnitude. Boronizing prevents the transition to adhesive or severe wear.
Sintered carbide wire-drawing dies wear by a mixture of corrosion and
adhesion. The life of a die will depend on the material being drawn. In this respect,
stainless steel is particularly difficult. Boronized dies can lead to a life increase of IO
times.
In abrasive wear, boronizing is more cost effective than any other material for
such items as agricultural machinery.
Molten zinc is very corrosive to mild steel. In jobbing galvanizers’ works
boronized mild steel is cheaper and longer lasting than titanium for carrying ware
into the zinc bath.
Resistance to acids, in particular to hydrochloric acid. is increased by
boronizing.

1. INTRODUCTION

It is proposed that the term erosion should cover all forms of mechanical
damage in which material is lost from a part. This is generally called wear. A passing
reference will also be made to chemical erosion or corrosion.
There are four major types of wear each of which has subtypes: (a)
unlubricated sliding wear; (b) lubricated sliding wear; (c) hybrid sliding wear; (d)
abrasive wear. Chemical corrosion will also be mentioned.

2. UNLUBRICATED SLIDING WEAR

In unlubricated sliding wear there are two distinct regimes which Eyre’ has

*Paper presented at the International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings, San Francisco, California.
U.S.A., March 2%April 1, 1977.
342 R.H. BIDDULPH

called mild or oxidative wear at low loads and severe or adhesive wear at high loads.
There is a transition zone between the two. Figure 1, curve a, shows what happens
with a standard pin or disc wear machine. The pin is mild steel (En la or its
equivalent A ISI 1116) and the disc is En 24 (approximately equivalent to A IS1
E4340). The transition between mild and severe wear occurs at a load o f about 7 kg
on the 6 m m diameter pin, when the wear rate increases by three orders of
magnitude. Curve b shows what happens when the pin is boronized. The wear
remains mild up to 22 kg load, which was the limit o f the machine. Later
measurements made on a new wear machine showed that wear remains low up to 40
kg load.

l0

~ld 5 ,x /
!
1D
!
!
"s
£1 I
!
I
!
I

Y
~ 1 0 -'t

b
o

,o~
IO I~ 14 I'6 I'B 20
LOAD (Kg)

Fig. 1. The wear rate plotted against load for dry sliding wear (the vertical scale is logarithmic) : curve a,
mild steel ; curve b, boronized mild steel.

It is still not certain what mechanism causes this great reduction in wear.
Boronizing seems to prevent weldin, g between the asperities on the wearing surfaces
and their subsequent tearing which is characteristic of severe wear. (The debris from
severe wear is bright metallic particles, while that from mild wear is black powder.)
Boron has a great affinity for oxygen, and all borides form a thin oxide film. This
could act as a lubricant or an antiwelding surface in the same manner as chlorine
and sulphur c o m p o u n d s in extreme pressure lubricants. Alternatively, it is k n o w n
that iron boride surfaces are not wetted by, for example, metals such as zinc. It could
be that there is an intrinsic "non-wettability" in the boride layer independent o f the
oxidation. Experimental work is now being carried out by Eyre at Brunel
University to try to elucidate the mechanism.
This reduction in wear rate applies to other steels including 40 carbon steel (En
8 which is equivalent to A 1S1 C 1039).
3. LUBRICATEDSLIDING WEAR
If a journal and a bearing are properly lubricated with clean lubricant, there
BORONIZIN(; FOR I!ROSI()N RI'SISTAN('I! 343

should be no wear at all unless the relative speed is such that cavitation occurs.
Therefore only cases in which cavitation occurs will be considered. Here there is
little firm evidence of a scientific nature. In small hydraulic pumps, a British
c o m p a n y 2 has converted entirely to boronized steel since it offers improved life over
the hard c h r o m i u m plating previously used. No other evidence is k n o w n to the
author.

4. HYBRIDSLIDING WEAR

This term is used to denote wear when it is not clear whether or not lubricant is
present. A n example is the d r a w i n g of wire through a die. The wire is lubricated, but
there is evidence that there is metal-to-met,al contact in the die. In addition,
especially for copper wire, there can also be some corrosion of the inlet "bell" of the
die since the wire surface can carry traces of a q u e o u s corrosive substances. Figure 23

2500

2000

1,500'

I000

Z 500

r r
Fig. 2. Wire-drawing die wear. The left-hand bar in each pair is for a regular sintered tungsten carbide
die ; the right-hand bar is for a boronized die : a, bright drawn carbon steel wire (a reduction of 20 %); b,
ripping carbon steel (a reduction of 20 %); c, regular carbon steel wire-drawing(a reduction of 21%); d,
316 stainless steel (a reduction of 17 %). (Note: the ordinate for part d is in kilograms of wire drawn.)

indicates the increase in life o b t a i n e d in the d r a w i n g of several different types of steel

wire. The greatest increase (of more than 9 times) is with stainless steel (En 58 or A
1S1 301) wire, while the worst case is 1.8 times for a " r i p p i n g " die, i.e. a die used in
the first stage for " r i p p i n g " d o w n wirebar which, a l t h o u g h pickled and cleaned up,
m a y still have oxides on its surface. T a b l e I gives the results in detail.
TABLE I

Wire drawn Reduction Length c through Length c through Ratio

o/
(/,,) regular die ( k m ) boronized die (kin)

Steel(0.6~C) a 20 220 400 1.82

Steel(0.5 ~ C)b 21 230 1320 5.74
Steel(0.75~C) 20 220 865 3.93
Stainlesssteel(316) 17 132 1205 9.13

a Ripping operation (see above).

bBright drawing carbon steel.
c Lengths in kilometres to the tolerance limit on the die.
344 R . H . BIDDULPH

5. ABRASIVE W E A R

As a result of early experiments, Russian workers 4 have suggested that

abrasive wear would be very much reduced if the surface hardness of a metal part
was greater than that of the abrasive.
Some work was carried out at the National Institute for Agricultural
Engineering 5 in Great Britain in which bullet-shaped pieces of steel which had been
surface treated in different ways were pulled through a known length of stony soil
near Lutori, Bedfordshire, Great Britain. Four tracks were used, each 50 m long,
and each material was tested in triplicate. The results are given in Table II.

T A B L E II

Material Relative wear resistancesa Relative cost o f wear losses

index
Field 180flint 40flint Field 180flint 40flint

1.1 3.47 27.6 2.82 11,0 1.4 13.0

1.2 5.59 27.6 3.84 11.0 2.2 16.0
1.3 1.06 162 9.23 31.0 0.2 3.6
1.4 60.7 4,62 -- 2.9 39.0
2.1 4.24 11.8 1,70 3.1 1.1 7.8
3.1 2.33 3.48 1.35 5.6 3.8 9.7
3.2 2.83 36.8 4.19 2.1 0.16 1.4
3.3 2.29 10,3 2.38 3.4 0.76 3.3
4.2 0.832 1.17 0.994 5.9 4.2 4.9
4.3 0.536 0.821 0.783 6.8 d 4.4 4.7
4.4 0.986 1.28 1.12 2.7 2.1 2.4
5.1 27.6 1.29 -- 0.31 6.6
5.3 1.02 1.41 1.13 3.9 d 2.8 3.5
5.4 1.69 1.27 1.35 2.1 d 1.6 2.7
5.5 1.51 1.51 1.57 0.68 0.41 0.65
6.1 1.85 2.85 0.969 17.0 11.0 32.0
6.2 3.13 8.49 1.17 6.9 2.5 18.0
7.1 2.08 15.0 1.29 14.0 1.9 22.0
7.2 7.09 20.7 2.40 3.9 1.3 11.0
8.1 0.611 0.231 -- 12.0 30.0
8.2 0.336 0.140 -- 39.0 90.0
8.3 0.540 0.697 0.481 e ~__ __
8.4 0,356 0,134 -- 140 330
9,1 221 33.3 -- 0,035 0.23
9.2 1,93 1.23 1.08 1.5 2.8 3,2
9.3 0.918 1.01 0.971 4.1 d 3.7 3,9
9.4 0.709 11.4 2.35 9.6 0.6 2.9
10.1 a 1.53 b
(1.22) c 1.65 1.39 0.93 f 0.86 1.0
10.2 a 1.93 b
(0.743) c 3.01 1.66 1,2 f 0.79 1.4
10,3 a 0.563 b
(0.416) c 32.4 10.3 7.0 f 0.12 0.38
10.4 a 7.29 b
(3.73) c ~ 32,6 0.57 f 0.00 0.13
11.1 2.25 10.0 1.25 13.0 2.8 23.0
BORONIZING FOR EROSION RESISTANCE 345

TABLE II (continued)

Material Relative wear resistances a Relative cost of wear losses

inde'x
Field 180flint 40flint Field 180flint 40flint

11.2 1.60 1.72 1.14 17.0 16.0 24.0

11.3 1.76 1.53 0.967 16.0, 18.0 29.0
C 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

a Relative wear resistance is defined as the Weight loss of the control divided by the weight loss of the
test material, i.e. the higher the better.
bRelative wear resistance for the first 4 x 50 m run only.
c Bracketed figures refer to the relative wear resistance for the second 4 x 50 m run.
dSubject to import duty.
e Cost of material very small compared with deposition cost.
f Cost of base material plus diffusion treatment.

L a b o r a t o r y tests were also carried out by testing the abrasive wear obtained
when the samples were rubbed by crushed=flint-coated papers of 180 BS mesh and
40 BS mesh.
In all cases the wear rates were measured by the loss in weight given as the
percentage of the wear of the control which was made from BS 970/817 M 40
steel--a medium carbon low alloy steel (0.4 ~ C, 2.5 ~ Ni, 1.2 ~ Cr and 0.27 ~ Me)
similar to A S T M A 294-B.
The cost of all the treatments was used to calculate the relative cost
effectiveness of the processes. These values are given in the last three columns of
Table II and show boronized low alloy steel (no. 10.4) as the most cost effective in
the field trials. It is thought that the relative costs will not have changed.
The nature of the various treatments is given in Table III.

TABLE III
MATERIAL DEPOSITIONTECHNIQUEAND FINISHINGPROCEDURE

Material Group Composition a Deposition Finish c

index technique b

1.1 WC composite 70 WC MA G
1.2 40 WC PoS --
1.3 WC spheres in brass Cast SE
1.4 WC spheres in brass Pls --
2.1 Austenitic Fe 33 Cr, 3.5 C MA G
3. I Martensitic iron 20 Cr, 2.8 C, 9.2 Me MA G
3.2 27 Cr, 4 C, 4 Me MA G
3.3 27 Cr, 4 C, 8 Nb MA G
4.2 Austenitic steel 15 Cr, 14 Mn MA T
4.3 19 Cr, 10 Ni, 6 Mn MA T
4.4 5 Cr, 3 Ni~ 12 Mn MA T
5.1 Martensitic steel 11 Cr, 2.5 B MA G
5.3 2 Co, 8 W MA G
5.4 4.5 Cr, 7.5 Me, 1.6 V, 2 W MA G
5.5 10 Cr MA G
6.1 Ni base d 8 Cr, 4.5 Si, 3 B PoS --
6.2 26 Cr, 4 Si, 3.5 B PoS --
346 R.H. BIDDULPH

TABLE Ill (continued)

Material Group Composition a Deposition Finish c

index technique b

7.1 Co based 33Cr, 13 W, 3.5C OA G

7.2 25 Cr, 11 Ni, 10 W, 2.75 Si, 3 B PoS --
8.1 Ceramics and 97.5 A1203, 2.5 TiO 2 Pls --
8.2 cements 24 A1203, 6 AI, 70 8.1e Pls --
8.3 20-25 Si3N4, balance Co E1D G
8.4 20 Ni, 5 Cr, 75 Cr carbide Pls
9.1 Miscellaneous 82 Cr, 18 B OA G
9.2 27 Cr, 4 C, balance Fe MA 1 G
9.3 13 Cr, balance Fe MA T
9.4 13 Cr, balance Fe OA G
10.1 Surface diffusion 1.2 Mn, 0.6 Si, balance Fe Carburized
10.2 3.2 Cr, 0.55 Mo ]Nitrides
10.3 Mild steel Boronized -
10.4 2.5 Ni, 1.2 Cr, 0.27 Mo Boronized
11.1 Deposition 33 Cr, 13 W, 3.5 C, balance Co OA G
11.2 technique 33 Cr, 13 W, 3.5 C, balance Co TiG G
11.3 33 Cr, 13 W, 3.5 C, balance Co MA G
Control 1.0-1.4 Cr, 0.2-0.35 Mo, 0.45-0.7 Mn

aThe Composition in percentages; the balance is iron unless stated otherwise.

bMA, manual arc; PoS, power sprayed; Pls, plasma sprayed; OA, oxyacetylene welded; EID,
electrodeposited composite; TiG, tungsten inert gas welded.
c G, ground; SE, spark eroded (electrodischarge machined) ; T, turned.
dln these alloys the balance of the composition is as stated, i.e. nickel for 6.1 and 6.2 and cobalt for 7.1
and 7.2.
e 70 % of the mixture described in 8.1.

E y r e 6 has also c a r r i e d o u t e x p e r i m e n t s u s i n g fresh s i l i c o n - c a r b i d e - c o a t e d p a p e r

as t h e a b r a s i v e surface. T h i s is s o m e w h a t artificial in t h a t it is m u c h h a r d e r t h a n the
b o r o n i z e d s u r f a c e a n d o n c e the b o r i d e l a y e r has w o r n o f f n o f u r t h e r effect is seen.
F i g u r e 3 s h o w s t h a t for all l o a d s t h e b o r o n i z e d m a t e r i a l w e a r s less t h a n the r e g u l a r
untreated metal.
I n i n d u s t r i a l p r a c t i c e , this w e a r r e s i s t a n c e to a b r a s i v e s , especially to s m a l l
p a r t i c l e a b r a s i v e s , h a s led to t h e use b y a British c o m p a n y * o f b o r o n i z e d m i l d steel
f o r j i g s to c a r r y c o m p o n e n t s t h r o u g h a p o l i s h i n g process.

6. CHEMICAL CORROSION

T h i s is n o t w e a r in the a c c e p t e d sense, b u t it is o f significance in the c o s t o f m a n y

p r o c e s s e s . B o r o n i z i n g h a s b e e n s h o w n to r e d u c e the a t t a c k o n steel b y a c i d s a n d b y
m o l t e n zinc. N o n e o f this w o r k h a s b e e n p u b l i s h e d , b u t the r e s i s t a n c e to m o l t e n zinc
h a s i n d u s t r i a l use in the j o b b i n g g a l v a n i z i n g i n d u s t r y w h e r e b o r o n i z e d m i l d steel
h o o k s h a v e r e p l a c e d t i t a n i u m at o n e p l a n t in G r e a t B r i t a i n t .

* Ronson Products Limited, Leatherhead, Surrey, Gt. Britain.

tMetaltreat Limited, 359 Canal Road, Bradford 2, 3(orkshire, Gt. Britain.
BORONIZING FOR EROSION RESISTANCE 347

" ~ 50"
e
jO 4 0 '

30"
~ ~ .~" . ~-.~
b-
~ 20
IE

I0
. _ - -×.

. . ~ , ~ g 3 ~ ~ ---- - . x. . . . . "
o li~,~:: --li- 7 ~ "~- ,
O I0 20 30 40
SLIDING DISTANCE (m)

Fig. 3. Abrasive wear: C) C), 1 kgload, regular steel; [] [], 500 gload, regular steel; ~ - - - -4~-,
1 kg load, boronized steel; ~ L - - ~ 7 , 5 0 0 g load, boronized steer; O . . . . ~), 150 g load, regular steel;
x . . . . . x , 150 g load, boronized steel.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is indebted to Dr. T. S. Eyre of Brunel University and the Director
of the National Institute for Agricultural Engineering for the use of their results and
to the directors of Borax Consolidated Limited for permission to publish this paper.

REFERENCES

1 T.S. Eyre, Wear, 34 (1975) 383-397.

2 Stansted Fluid Power Limited, 70 Bentfield Road, Stansted, personal communication, 1976.
3 L. Milan, of Danite Hard Metals Limited, Paper presented at the Materials Science Club Meeting,
Brunel University, June 1975.
4 R.V. Kugel and N. S. Zinovich, Protsessy Uprochneniya Detali Mashin, Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 1964,
pp. 78-82 (Chem. Abstr., 62 (1965) 2540h).
5 "M. A. Moore, Natl Inst. for Agricultural Engineering Dept Note DN/ER/427/1160, 1973.
6 T.S. Eyre, personal communication, 1975.