Characterization of cast manganese steels containing varying manganese and chromium additions

Three manganese steel containing 13-17 wt.% manganese and varying amounts of chromium were produced by casting technique. The microstructures of the cast manganese steels were observed using optical microscopy (OM) techniques. The hardness properties of the steels were evaluated using the Vickers microhardness testing. Although secondary precipitates were identified at the grain boundaries of the cast steels, the results showed that varying addition of manganese and chromium has significant effects on improving the microstructure of the steels. Improvement in the microhardness properties resulted from both the secondary phase and grain refinement properties of the alloying elements. The wear behaviour shows that addition of different weight percent of the chromium content decreases the coefficient of friction of the manganese steels. The corrosion behaviour results gotten from 3.5% NaCl solution showed that Mn and Cr additions influenced the corrosion property of the material.