Hardox® HiAce

Hardox^® HiAce is a true wear fighter, especially in acidic and corrosive environments that threaten to eat away at your equipment. This corrosion-resistant steel plate helps to meet the challenges of corrosive wear environments found in municipal and industrial waste management, waste-to-energy plants, and in mining and process industries.

Hardox^® HiAce has the necessary hardness to provide a long service life, in combination with the toughness it takes to perform as a structural steel. It also works in freezing temperatures thanks to its high impact toughness with a minimum Charpy impact test value of 27 J at -20°C (20 ft-lb at -4°F).

Corrosive wear can take a real toll on equipment operating in acidic and low pH environments. In the long run this leads to more maintenance, higher repair costs and a shorter service life – overall, lower productivity and profitability.

If the steel in your containers, truck or tipper bodies and other equipment comes under attack from acids, humidity, sulfur, chlorides, wood chips, household waste and other aggressive substances, service life can be a lot shorter than expected. Hardox^® HiAce can counter such attacks thanks to its special steel composition.

Waste containers made by Wong Fong Engineering in Singapore now stand up to corrosion and wear from acidic loads thanks to Hardox^® HiAce.

The combination of low pH levels, chemicals (such as chloride), temperature or minimal maintenance can also cause aggressive damage to equipment called pitting corrosion. Pitting is the corrosion of a metal surface localized to a small area and takes the form of small holes, or pits, in the metal material. But don’t be fooled by size: a single pit in a critical part of a piece of equipment can cause outsized damage. Although pitting corrosion does not cause much loss of material on the surface, it can damage the metal’s deep structures. It’s also hard to detect and predict. Hardox^® HiAce has been shown to resist both general corrosion and pitting corrosion.

In conditions with low pH levels, different wear mechanisms kick in and harder steels won’t necessarily provide a longer equipment service life. Hardox^® HiAce corrosion-resistant steel performs the same as 450 HBW steel in a typical abrasive wear environment. At lower pH levels it can extend service life up to 3 times compared with a conventional 450 HBW steel, which is typically used in many applications.

Hardox^® HiAce has the toughness it takes to perform as a structural material in garbage trucks, recycling containers, tipper and dump bodies, and other heavy-duty equipment. It also works in freezing temperatures down to -20°C (-4°F).

Industries and applications that can benefit from products made with Hardox^® HiAce include:

• Municipal and industrial waste management: garbage trucks, containers and wear surfaces exposed to acid in waste and recycling facilities, as well as equipment operating in landfills
• Recycling
• Waste-to-energy plants and biomass facilities
• Paper and pulp mills and wood processing
• Agricultural applications and forestry
• Process industries
• Mining and quarrying

Ore containing salt and a tropical climate create a perfect storm for corrosive wear. Bruce Rock Engineering upgraded its mining trailers to Hardox^® HiAce and made its customers happier.