Fracture and wear behavior of high-chromium cast iron obtained from industrial waste and reinforced with alumina particles

In response to the specific requirements of the grinding mill industry, a new composite material for mill crushing parts has been developed. This innovative material, which is both cost-effective and environmentally sustainable, is manufactured from industrial waste of high-chromium cast iron (HCCI) reinforced with aluminum oxide (electrocorundum) particles. The HCCI shavings were crushed, sieved, and milled with the addition of 20 wt% of electrocorundum. The HCCI+20 %Al 2 O 3 powder mixture was consolidated through the process of hot pressing. By optimizing the process conditions, a composite material was obtained with a remarkably high relative density of 99.84 %. Fracture toughness under quasistatic and dynamic loading conditions as well as wear resistance of the HCCI/Al 2 O 3 composite samples, were the main material properties investigated in accordance with the intended application. The wear test program included the ball-on-disc test, the linear abrasive test, and the abrasive blasting test. The base HCCI alloy and the HCCI reinforced with uncoated zirconia toughened alumina were used as reference materials. The results from the Taber linear abrasive test and the abrasive blasting test demonstrated the superior wear resistance of the HCCI/Al 2 O 3 composite over the reference materials. However, in the ball-on-disc test, the HCCI/Al 2 O 3 composite exhibited a higher degree of wear compared to the reference materials. This effect was found to be attributable to a specific microstructure of the reinforcing phase. The HCCI/Al 2 O 3 composite shows promise for industrial applications. However, the hot pressing step requires scaling up to industrial pressing facilities to obtain reasonably sized samples for use in grinding mills.