Wear-resistant components do not always fail uniformly.
In many mechanical applications, most of the component remains structurally sound while a relatively small working area experiences repeated abrasion and contact. Replacing the entire component with a higher-alloy material can increase manufacturing cost without necessarily addressing the actual wear pattern efficiently.
This was the challenge behind a Plate Upper Tungsten Carbide Plated requirement for a customer in Vietnam.
The customer needed a component that could retain a strong steel structure while providing additional protection around the lower section where wear was concentrated.
The Plate Upper operates with its lower section exposed to repeated mechanical contact. Because the contact is not limited to one perfectly flat surface, protecting only the bottom face would leave the surrounding surfaces exposed.
The design therefore had to address several practical issues simultaneously:
Simply increasing the hardness of the complete steel component was not considered the most appropriate approach because the structural body and wear surfaces perform different functions.
Based on the component requirements, Kingrail developed the manufacturing solution around a 16Mn forged steel body.
The steel blank was first forged to establish the main structure and then machined to achieve the required dimensions and interfaces.
The most important part of the solution was the wear-protection arrangement.
Rather than applying tungsten carbide to only one working face, tungsten carbide blocks were brazed onto five surfaces of the lower section. This created a protected wear zone around the part of the component most exposed during operation.
The complete manufacturing sequence included:
This approach allowed the structural and wear-resistant functions to be handled separately within a single finished component.
The main advantage of the solution lies in the distribution of materials.
The 16Mn steel body continues to provide the strength, toughness, and machinability required for the component, while the tungsten carbide blocks protect the areas subjected to concentrated abrasion.
The five-surface configuration also provides a practical advantage over single-face protection because wear can develop along the bottom and adjacent surfaces during service.
For the Vietnam project, the solution provides several expected operational benefits:
The actual service-life improvement depends on operating load, contact conditions, abrasive medium, maintenance practice, and other field factors. For this reason, Kingrail evaluates wear-resistant components according to the customer's actual application rather than applying a fixed service-life claim.
This Vietnam application illustrates how severe wear does not always require an entirely different component material. In many cases, a more practical solution is to maintain a tough structural steel body and reinforce only the areas that experience the greatest abrasion.
By combining a forged and machined 16Mn body with tungsten carbide blocks brazed onto five lower surfaces, the Plate Upper achieves a clear division between structural support and wear protection.
Kingrail's forging, casting, machining, and customized manufacturing capabilities allow similar components to be developed according to customer drawings and actual wear patterns. For customers dealing with premature wear of steel parts, the first step is therefore not simply selecting a harder material, but identifying where the wear occurs, how the component is loaded, and which surfaces require additional protection.
