Heat-resistant, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant plastic parts in heavy vehicles or industrial machinery are called super engineering plastics. Their more powerful performance comes from a completely different manufacturing process. A group of researchers in Japan designed a new method to improve the wear resistance and corrosion resistance of the machine's super engineering plastics, thereby avoiding environmental corrosion caused by the manufacturing process.
The author of the paper, Kenta Yamanaka, associate professor of deformation processing at Northeastern University, said: "The global market for super engineering plastics has grown in recent years because they have very high temperature resistance, good mechanical strength and excellent chemical and high temperature environment resistance Solvent-based, but during the manufacturing process, reciprocating screws in manufacturing equipment often suffer from frequent wear and tear because semi-fluid raw materials often contain large amounts of glass fibers as reinforcement materials. "
Super engineering plastics also decompose into sulfide gases, which in addition to physical conditions wear out, also lead to a highly corrosive environment. The screws in the manufacturing machine cannot withstand this environment for a long time.
High speed steel alloy to overcome corrosion
To correct this problem, Yamanaka and the researchers studied a steel alloy called high-speed steel, which is currently mainly used in tools. According to Yamanaka, this steel has excellent mechanical properties at room temperature and high temperature, but is susceptible to corrosion.
So the researchers used an alloy based on high-speed steel and treated it with copper.
"The wear resistance and corrosion resistance of steel usually show a trade-off relationship," Yamanaka said. "In this study, we proved that adding trace copper to high-hardness steel can significantly improve the corrosion resistance of the alloy, thereby achieving the perfect combination of wear resistance and corrosion resistance."
After analyzing the alloy through imaging and experimental research, the researchers found that they had successfully developed a highly wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant steel. Next, they plan to further study the properties of the alloy for use in other fields.