Author(s)

M. A. Bodude, W.A. Ayoola, D. E. Esezobor, A. A. Agbeleye

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Steels are used widely for production of machine components due to their versatility, low cost, ease of production and modification of their properties through heat-treatment. ST60Mn Steel is one of the common high strength steel produced in Nigeria and utilized for machine building purposes. Components made from this materials failed by wear, corrosion or both mechanism. The aim of this paper is to determine the influence of austempering heat-treatment on the corrosion-wear resistance of ST60Mn steel in cassava juice. The heat-treatment was performed by varying the austenitizing temperature, austempering temperature and time. The corrosion wear resistance was investigated under an instrumented pin-on-disc wear testing machine with the steel samples dipped in the cassava juice. The results obtained showed that the austempered ST60Mn steel has a wear rate of 3.0μg/cycle. While, the un-heat-treatment sample possess 70.1μg/cycle. This is a tremendous improvement in corrosion wear rate through the austempering heat treatment.

Corrosion, wear, Austempering, Heat-treatment, Cassava-juice.

M. Bodude, W. Ayoola, D. Esezobor and A. Agbeleye, "Corrosion-Wear of ST60-Mn Steel in Cassava Juice," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 11 No. 2, 2012, pp. 153-158. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2012.112012.