Iron-base Ω101 Alloy and Its Characteristics

Alloy Ω101 is a special type of metal with a lower melting point yet it offers high hardness and wear resistance. These features make the material suitable for use as an alloy layer on the surface of a barrel bore, extending the service life of the extruder or injection molding machine in which it is installed. After the standardized centrifugal casting method, we can create iron-base high borides Ω101 alloy with more types of carbides. Its main component is martensite white iron with a hardness rating of HRC 58~64, which is the same as X-102 alloy from Xaloy company in the USA.

Physical properties of the standardized iron-base abrasion-resistant Ω101 after standard centrifugal casting process

After centrifugal casting, alloy Ω101 forms the hypoeutectic structure as below:

As image 4 shows, regarding the extruders or injection molding machines, the barrel and screw will mainly suffer two kinds of wear, one is called contact wear, and another is shear wear. Because the screw is installed in the barrel’s inner bore with a cantilever structure, the screw surface will grind the barrel inner bore’s wall harshly. The faster the screw is rolling, the heavier the abrasion. If we use the same material for making barrels and screws, the contact wear will be even worse. Numerous experimental and practical experience in the last thirty years prove that compared with other alloys, the martensite white iron shows the least contact wear, especially for the nitrided screw or the high speed steel screw. All the circumstances are getting better since we introduced the Ω101 alloy in 2008.