Steel specialists Abraservice UK, one of Europe's largest independent special steel stockholders and processors, has announced the introduction of Quard®, a new abrasion resistant steel that provides the ideal solution to resistance to intensive wear coupled with key qualities including flatness, surface quality and thickness tolerance.
Abraservice UK is the distributor in the UK market for this new range of specialist steel plate from steel producer Duferco Clabecq, a world leader in thin quarto plate.
The Quard steel plate is currently available from stock in grades with typical hardness of 400 and 450 Brinell in thicknesses from 8 to 20mm. Additions to the range, including hardness of 500 and 550 Brinell, and thicknesses from 3mm and up to 40mm, will be introduced later in 2012. All grades will be available from 1500 to 2750mm in width, with a maximum length of 16m. Standard widths available from stock are 2000 and 2500mm plates depending on the thickness required.
The plate is supplied ready coated with a green primer coat and is easily processed by welding, bending, cutting or machining and produces outstanding results.
The Quard range brings a number of advantages including; guaranteed through thickness hardening and excellent flatness. The primed surface of the Quard range is also a key benefit particularly for manufacturers of finished parts such as truck bodies, where aesthetics are of great importance.
The production process of Quard results in a structure of high hardness, strength and toughness, giving 100% through thickness hardening and a steel that offers 3 to 4 times the durability of commercial mild steel grades such as S275 and S355.
Quard 400 and 450, due to their optimal combination of hardness, strength and ductility, can be used in many industries including mining and quarrying, cement production and the recycling of metal, rubber, wood and any other aggressive materials. This makes these materials ideal for applications such as buckets, crushers, cutting edges, dump truck bodies, skips, chutes and feeders. Quard 400 and 450 are easy to bend, cut, machine and weld and provides an excellent surface finish within tight thickness tolerances, with a high quality appearance and maximum fitting accuracy.
Quard 500 is intended for use in harsh applications where very high abrasion resistance is essential. This product is produced to the same high standard of quality, but offers a wear life of 6 to 8 times that of mild steel grades.
When available, Quard 500 and 550 will combine the attributes of hardness and toughness with improved crack resistance and high durability providing high strength with very good workability, especially in welding and cold forming. They will offer high wear resistance in applications exposed to increased wear from sliding abrasion and heavy impacts from crushing rocks, gravel, sand or other harsh abrasives.
"This range of Quard steel plate is a fantastic new product for us to bring to the market. It brings exceptional material properties as well as outstanding tolerances and quality. We will be stocking the whole range and offering our processing services to customers with specific application requirements" stated Nick Taylor, UK Sales Manager at Abraservice UK.