Finnish steel specialist Miilux is renowned for manufacturing novel abrasion-resistant steels that can be profiled into complex geometries without compromising the mechanical strength of the product. These unique screening solutions are manufactured by forming the steel while it is still hot and malleable before the pre-formed material is quenched. Alongside improvements to product formability, this enhances the yield strength of the steel and provides end-to-end hardness for superior abrasion and impact resistance.
Miilux screening solutions are commonly used for protective paneling on heavy industry transporters and earth-moving equipment, and pleats for vehicular tracks. With tensile strengths of up to 2,000 Newtons per square millimeter (N/mm2) and reduced weight profiles due to their perforated form, Miilux steel grades have also been used for ballistic protection.
This blog post will explore the use of Miilux screening solutions as protective paneling for heavy industry applications:
Heavy Industry Screening Solutions
Abrasion resistant steels are typically categorized by their Brinell hardness value, which determines their resistance to impacts and abrasive forces. This characteristic is determined by measuring the scale of penetration by an indenting material – typically a high-hardness metal such as tungsten carbide. The Brinell hardness number of a product is used to quantify its hardness range (HBW), one of the most common test standards worldwide.
Heavy industry components often require protective paneling or screening solutions with suitable mechanical hardness to resist constant abrasive impacts of varying scales. Fine particle abrasion and mechanical gyration can cause gradual mechanical wearing and eventual mechanical failure. Typically, engineers overcome this issue by using abrasion resistant steel grades with high HBWs. This can be problematic as high-hardness metals are typically unsuitable for heat-treatment and thus cannot be formed into complex profiles.
MAS500 AR is an abrasion resistant steel with an HBW of 450 – 540, depending upon the thickness of the product. It retains good degrees of formability for profiling but is unsuitable for heat treatment as this would significantly impact the strength of the material. Miilux screening solutions circumvent this issue by completing component profiling before quenching occurs. This provides outstanding mechanical strengths across complex structural profiles with perforations, pleats, and curves. Miilux steel grades are available with a hardness range from 360 – 420, to as much as 570 – 640 HBW.
These unique screening solutions are used in conjunction with established abrasion resistant steel grades to protect complex machinery and to reinforce structural pain points. Drill heads, seams in mechanical plating, and personnel platforms or seats are commonly augmented with Miilux screening solutions to provide lightweight protection from myriad abrasive elements.
Screening Solutions from Masteel
Masteel has formed a unique partnership with Miilux steel to provide high-quality steel screening solutions to customers across the world. Feel free to read about the applications of Miilux screening solutions in further detail, or contact us if you require a quote on any of our abrasion-resistant screening solutions.