Steel and aluminum producers continue to launch new products for lightweighting, strength and other end-use specifications.
TimkenSteel Intros Endurance High-Performance SteelsTimkenSteel, Canton, Ohio, has launched its Endurance family of performance steels, which include three new patent-pending grades of ultra-high strength, high-toughness steels. The new steels offer manufacturers the ability to achieve higher degrees of strength and toughness for lighter weight, longer life and more power, the company claims.
The new TimkenSteel Endurance steels are a specialized group of products designed for extremely demanding applications that require a precise blend of steel toughness and strength.
“We’ve always been a leader in developing high-performance steels with some of the greatest degrees of strength and toughness, and now we’re making them better,” says Ray Fryan, TimkenSteel’s vice president of technology and quality. “Our technology allows us to develop an exact blend of strength and toughness that’s needed based on the application. Better yet, customers don’t have to wait for a redesign to reap the benefits that our Endurance steels offer.”
Potential benefits, depending on specific application needs, can include increased power transmission, light weighting, and extended product life and reduced component failure, which can reduce downtime and warranty program costs.
“These steels serve demanding environments where things are moving at a high rate of motion and are very energy intensive,” says Fryan. “They offer an incredible amount of strength and toughness in a small envelope.”
Fryan says he envisions TimkenSteel’s ultra-high strength and high-toughness grades to benefit premium gear manufactures in a variety of market segments, including oil & gas, mining, marine, construction and more.
ArcelorMittal Creates iCARe Version 2.0 Luxembourg’s ArcelorMittal has launched the second generation of its iCARe electrical steels. These steel grades play a role in the construction of electric motors to be used in both electric and conventional automobiles.
ArcelorMittal launched iCARe, its first electrical steel product range designed specifically to meet the requirements of the electric vehicle, in June 2012. For electric vehicles, the advantages of the new, second generation grades are the reduced use of electricity at all levels of performance, greater strength, less heat generation and improved magnetic properties. This results in improved engine performance and ultimately an increased driving range.
“The main challenge today continues to be the limited distance over which an electric car can be driven,” says Sigrid Jacobs, worldwide development director for ArcelorMittal’s electrical steels. “That is why we support manufacturers of drive systems in their efforts to develop more efficient and better-performing motors by using improved materials like the new iCARe steels.”
The second generation of iCARe steels makes improved power density possible, compared with the first generation. This is reflected in less weight for the same motor performance, which in turn results in increased driving range.
AK’s NEXMET Steels Designed for Automotive AK Steel’s NEXMET family of steel products enables automotive companies to design and manufacture lighter-weight vehicles that are capable of meeting increasingly stringent emissions regulations and passenger safety requirements, the Middletown, Ohio-based steel producer claims.
While AK Steel’s NEXMET 440EX product is intended for use in surface-critical exposed auto body panels, the new NEXMET 1000 and 1200 products were designed specifically for use in automotive structural components. NEXMET 1200, for example, has better formability than conventional dual phase 600 steel, at twice the strength level, the company claims. This allows automotive engineers to design lightweight parts that meet even more rigorous service and safety requirements.
“These new NEXMET 1000 and 1200 products are evidence of AK Steel’s work to drive innovation in the steel industry, and remain at the forefront of carbon, stainless and electrical steel technology to provide our customers with unsurpassed levels of value and support,” says Roger Newport, CEO of AK Steel.
Providing demonstration samples is an important step in the customer qualification process for new automotive products. Numerous other such developments are currently under way at the company’s new Research and Innovation Center in Middletown, Ohio.
SSAB Expands Duroxite Line to Pipe Products Hardox Wearparts, from Sweden’s SSAB, has launched the Duroxite100 Pipe to add to its Duroxite overlay product line. The finished pipes have the same high wear resistance as Duroxite plate products. Consistent wear properties are guaranteed throughout the pipe down to 75 percent of the overlay thickness as opposed to just the surface of the overlay. The remaining 25 percent of overlay is the transition layer necessary to maintain good bonding to the base plate. An optimal carbide composition ensures homogenous bonding between the base metal and overlay, adding to its high wear resistance and long service life.
The Duroxite pipe is manufactured by welding chromium-rich, abrasion-resistant materials inside a mild steel pipe. Extremely hard chromium-rich carbides with a typical hardness of 1700 HK are dispersed in a ductile eutectic austenite matrix.
Duroxite 100 Pipe is available in multiple dimensions and shapes—in diameters from 150 to 900 millimeters. The lengths can be cut to order, and the ends can have custom-made flanges for easy installation in existing equipment.
The pipe can be ordered with square-to-round transitions, elbows, T, or Y-shaped connections, or as long sweeps. Standard Schedule 40 and 80 pipes can also be delivered with hardfacing, which can substantially increase the service life over that expected from the Schedule 40 and 80 pipes alone.
TMK Creates Connection for Thermal WellsTMK has introduced a premium threaded and coupled connection targeted for thermal wells. The new connection, TMK UP ULTRATM GX, completed the testing and evaluation. The pipes used for qualification testing (9-5/8-inch OD) were supplied by Volzhsky Pipe Plant.
Thermal Well Casing Connection Evaluation Protocol requires extensive material testing, rigorous finite element analysis, galling resistance test, thermal cycle test followed by limit strain and bending test. The FEA, galling resistance test and thermal cycle tests were completed in-house at the company’s Houston R&D center. The limit strain and bending tests were completed at C-FER Technologies, Edmonton, Canada. The connection is being offered to Canadian customers for thermal applications.
Carpenter Produces Titanium Powder for Additive ManufacturingCarpenter Technology Corp., Pa., has begun production of CARTECH PURIS 5+, the market’s first high-strength, low-oxygen titanium powder solution, the company claims.
A custom composition of Ti-6AI-4V that meets all Grade 5 specifications, CARTECH PURIS 5+ signals a breakthrough in additive manufacturers’ ability to better control oxygen content inherent to their processes without compromising powder strength, the company claims.
“Balancing oxygen levels with desired strength properties is a challenge in additive manufacturing. CARTECH PURIS 5+ provides the simultaneous optimization of powder recyclability and strength, alleviating concerns about using low oxygen powder while still exceeding standard strength requirements,” says Michael Murtagh, Carpenter’s chief technology officer. “CARTECH PURIS 5+ makes this balance easier, more efficient, and more effective from the start and throughout the titanium powder lifecycle.”
CARTECH PURIS 5+ is Carpenter Technology’s first major powder product introduction since its acquisition of Puris, LLC earlier in the year.