Each owner of the agricultural business, whether it is a small farm or a large agricultural holding, knows firsthand how tillage equipment sometimes fails and how long it takes to return to its former potential. Manufacturers of agricultural units are constantly working on improving the functionality of the machines, improving their consumer qualities. One of such innovations in the international agricultural machinery market is the use of a unique steel quenching technology, which will be discussed later. Borating allows increasing the strength and wear resistance of the working machines by 2-3 times, which allows farmers to spend less time and money on equipment maintenance.
Among the key positive qualities of boron-containing steel are the following:
- High strength surface layer
As a cold-rolled coil manufacturer admits, steel, which is hardened using boron technology, is resistant to mechanical stress, moisture, chemicals, but rather brittle material. Borating allows strengthening the components of mechanisms and working bodies of agricultural units that are subjected to intense loads, prevents their abrasive wear.
- Resistance to corrosion processes
Boron steel has resistance to corrosion under the influence of aqueous solutions of acids (except nitric). It is worth noting that it is precisely single-phase boride layers that are more acid-resistant than those that consist of two phases that can withstand the aggressive environment with the same thickness of the metal layer. Boride layers are not resistant to nitric acid, but the destruction of the material occurs less intensively than in a collision with an aggressive medium of products made of non-boron-containing metal.
- Heat resistance
It is a modern solution to save time and money. Boron steel is heat-resistant, which, undoubtedly, is a positive point, which speaks in favor of the use of innovative technology. Boron steel has high heat resistance (+ 900-950 °С), which brings its consumer characteristics to a fundamentally new level. The material is actively used for the manufacture of agricultural and industrial units. In terms of wear resistance, boron steel is slightly inferior to the same hardness metal with a thermodiffusion chromium coating, but this doesn’t detract from its other characteristics and doesn’t prevent the dominance of agricultural machinery in the modern market.
Disadvantages of borating technology
The wear resistance of boron is ensured due to the high hardness and wear resistance of borides and nitrides. At the same time, this technology has a significant drawback. During use, the metal becomes quite brittle. Leveling this factor allows a special approach to the design of some details.
The desire of many manufacturers to obtain the most solid basis for the heat treatment process can lead to cracking of the boride layer. The oxidation of the boride layer is prevented by the observance of the temperature regime established for steel of one or another grade during borating. The temperature of the isothermal medium for cooling metal parts is selected depending on the set hardness of the steel. Heat treatment of borated steel is also possible by technology, which involves accelerated cooling.
In conclusion of all of the above, it is worth noting that borating of carbon and alloy steels with strict observance of the technology allows achieving high resistance of the material to corrosion under the influence of solutions of salts, acids (except nitric), and alkalis.
