A bright future for turned, ground and polished Hardox® bright steel bars

Machining Hardox® round bars is a highly consistent procedure, thanks to the material’s tightly controlled chemical and mechanical properties. Bolts, threaded bolts and other components are easy to produce. High hardness and yield strength give predictable performance for a wide range of stationary and mobile production machinery.

The steel’s low carbon equivalent results in high toughness and predictable welding performance. The round steel bars are available with diameters ranging from 40 to 100 mm (1.575” - 3.937”). Diameters of 13 to 160 mm (0.152”-6.299”) are currently available as development round bars with AR 400 and AR 500 designation.

Bright steel bars are steel bars whose surface has been enhanced by finishing processes like TG&P to produce a smooth, shiny surface without scale, a geometrically precise shape and tighter dimensional tolerances.

The turning process creates a straight round bar without the strain induced by cold drawing. Excellent straightness is crucial in high-speed applications for reducing wear on bearings and preventing vibration. Grinding and polishing improve the finish and roundness of the bar for high dimensional accuracy.

Because of these qualities, bright steel bars like TG&P Hardox® round bars help design engineers reduce the time and cost of manufacture and boost product performance. This makes them a highly versatile choice across a wide range of industries.

Round steel bars produced by SSAB have a high level of accuracy already on delivery. When tighter tolerances are needed for bars in turned, ground and polished steel, SSAB works with machining partners such as WSB.  

When WSB got the opportunity to demonstrate its expertise in turning round steel bars, the company already had experience from working Hardox® wear steel

“We had a look at the chemical composition and mechanical properties and quickly realized that we would not have issues with machining,” says Ralf Eckmann, managing director at WSB.  

WSB’s outstanding pre-turning system, sawing lines, chamfering systems and the Förster Circograph ensure the required quality – a h9 tolerance in this case. The bright round bars produced were then supplied to a company that manufactures mobile equipment. 

High-carbon steels are traditionally used in demanding abrasion-resistant and high-strength applications. But steels such as 42CrMo4V (4140) pose some serious limitations. The typical hardness levels are 28 - 32 RC. Yet increasing the hardness by heat treatment can significantly lower the steel’s crack and fatigue resistance. This can result in premature failure in applications subjected to extreme wear.

Heat treatment as such is always a problem. It is time-consuming, increases costs and, above all, represents a risk factor, since the quality of the component after heat treatment remains unclear.

And this risk increases because the origin of the steel and the quality control procedures are often unknown. This may be crucial when product guarantees are needed.

Bright steel bars in Hardox® wear steel offer a better solution. For starters, they are made from exceptionally clean steel in a carefully controlled production process. The consistency of the material ensures predictable performance both in the workshop and as machine components in demanding applications. High hardness gives a longer service life, while the yield and tensile strengths guarantee a low risk of premature failure.

Hardox® wear plate has set the standard for premium wear-resistant steel for decades. The same combination of properties – consistency, hardness, toughness, machinability and weldability –make Hardox® round bars a natural choice for demanding wear applications such as these:

• Machine components
• Fastener products and fixtures
• Tools
• Construction
• Sporting equipment
• Automobile components