Railcars and Chromweld?
Railcars and Chromweld?
(OP)
What is the aim of using a soft stainless steel for rail cars when I would have thought that a wear plate would be better? Especially when carrying aggregate. The hardness of this material is only ~200HB and I find it difficult to beleive that corrosion resistance would be a bigger concern than wear resistance. Surely a high grade wear plate would last a lot longer. What do you think?





RE: Railcars and Chromweld?
On the other hand, carbon steels - even the abrasion-resistant grades - corrode from rain or wetness in the product, aggregates, coal, etc. The resulting corrosion product is weak and easily removed by the sliding action of the material. Continuous repetition of this process leads to high corrosion rates.
There are stainless steels that are harder AND LOWER PRICED than 304. Duplex stainless steel such as Usinor 2304 (S 32304) probably provides a significantly better combination of properties - strength, and corrosion resistance - than the 300 stainlesses. You should also look into the 12-Cr stainless steels - like Cromweld 3CR12, which has been widely used in the application you describe.
Happy transporting!
RE: Railcars and Chromweld?