Cost-effective, durable, and tough, Boron grades significantly reduce steel hardening costs for moldboard plows, disc harrows, and cultivators — while increasing hardness and toughness. They are compelling replacements for carburized, triple-layered cladding, B27/B30, and high alloy tool steels for tillage implements.
Carburizing: Case hardening, such as carburizing, is widely used to create tillage equipment with high surface hardness. But carburizing has several limitations: it’s an expensive process, time consuming (12 to 24 hours and in some cases even longer), dealing with hazardous chemicals/waste, and its energy consumption and carbon emissions. Plus, carburized steel has only moderate toughness and can suffer from quench cracks.
Triple-layer cladding: This hardening method has a much faster processing time than carburizing and delivers good surface hardness – but low toughness. Triple-layer cladding is also expensive and the resulting hardened steel is challenging to process (drill, cut, etc.) in the workshop.
High-alloy tool steels: Unlike carburized or triple-clad steel, high-alloy tool steel delivers through-thickness hardness – a major advantage. However, high-alloy tool steels are expensive, have low toughness, are afflicted by quench cracks, and require special workshop processing procedures.
It is important for a mould board to be high hard as well as tough enough to take the impact load when the plow hits stones.
In the workshop, the material needs to have good properties to drill, cut and heat treat without quench cracks. Keeping these in mind SSAB has designed a novel hardenable steel.
Tillage implements such as moldboards operate in high-wear environments, especially after the harvest. The wearing becomes even more aggressive if there is frost and crop residue. Moldboard plow manufacturers, therefore, search for high hardness steels to reduce wear, plus good toughness to resistant impacts against stones and small rocks.
SSAB M53 addresses the limitations of traditional hardened steels for moldboard plows. With SSAB M53, you can:
When following our recommendations for heat treatment and quenching media, SSAB M53 virtually eliminates quench cracks. We recommend water polymer for normal quenching, in the case of press hardening, please contact your local SSAB technical development team for specific recommendations. When water polymer quenched and low-temperature-tempered, SSAB M53 typically delivers 18 Joules impact energy resistance, along with its ≈59 HRC through-thickness hardness.
SSAB M53 can be cut mechanically or by using lasers or plasma cutters when following our recommendations. Flame cutting is not advised. If you need to punch or counterbore SSAB M53, please contact your local SSAB technical development team for specific recommendations. We recommend not punching or cold forming SSAB M53 in the hot-rolled delivered condition.
SSAB M53 is available as hot-rolled sheets, from 4.0 to 8.0 mm thickness, 1000 to 1800 mm widths and a maximum length of 13 meters.
Compared to conventional B27/B30 steel, SSAB Boron 45 delivers 4 to 5 HRC higher hardness that goes all the way through its thickness. It can be used with a variety of common heat treatment processes, including press hardening and hot forming – without quench cracks.
SSAB Boron 45’s excellent batch-to-batch consistency helps you make disc harrows and cultivators with a highly dependable through-thickness hardness for longer service life. Plus, SSAB Boron 45 has good toughness to absorb the impact from stones and small rocks.
SSAB Boron 45 is easy to cut and machine. If you need to punch or cold form SSAB Boron 45, order the hot-rolled annealed condition.
Typical surface hardness (HRC), not guaranteed, measured at 1,5 mm from surface.
SSAB Boron 45 is available as cut-to-length sheets, from 3.0 to 10.0 mm thickness (12 mm under development), 1000 to 1800 mm widths, and a maximum length of 13 meters. Options include hot-rolled and hot-rolled annealed.
Contact us for any questions you may have regarding your moldboard plow, disc harrow, or cultivator application. Our Boron steel experts are eager to help you make your hardening production more economical and your tillage equipment longer-lasting.
Agricultural/tillage implements — such as mouldboard ploughs, disc harrows, and cultivators — face extreme wear conditions. This webinar will show you how you can reduce material costs and increase implement service life by using the next generation hardenable SSAB Boron (press hardening) steel.
SSAB Boron steel stands for a new and wider range of advanced steel grades for quench and press hardening. It will improve overall productivity, yield and end product quality. It’s the right choice for trouble-free and cost-efficient performance in heat-treatment processes.