NEW MATERIALS

Specific heat treatment for duplex steel

Improving pump materials for harsh

environments
Pumping corrosive fluids containing abrasive solids is a challenge. Sulzer can adapt
pumps to such requirements by making the ideal choice of hydraulics and seals and by
improving the materials used to produce the pump. Because it has its own foundry,
Sulzer can offer materials that are not easily available on the market. The company has
developed a specific heat treatment procedure for steel that improves wear resistance,
while leaving corrosion resistance nearly unchanged.

ulzer supplies a variety of pumps

that can operate in corrosive
and abrasive environments, such
as chemical or metal processes and
demanding wastewater treatment. To
ensure high reliability, research and
development in the fields of fluid
mechanics and materials technology

as well as detailed knowledge of the

applications and operating conditions
are essential. Hydroabrasive wear and
corrosion can significantly reduce the
lifetime of pump components. One possibility to optimize operational life in
such aggressive surroundings is the
use of specially adapted hydraulics

or seals. Furthermore, the selection of

appropriate materials is the key to substantially extending the service intervals
of a pump.

Specialized foundry
Cast duplex stainless steels, as defined
by ASTM International (the international

Sulzers foundry in Karhula, Finland, manufactures stainless castings for pumps, mixers, and agitators. www.sulzer.com/PU-Finland

10 | Sulzer Technical Review 2/2013

4412

NEW MATERIALS

standards organization formerly known

as American Society for Testing and Materials), are the materials mainly used
today under corrosive and erosive conditions. When sourcing from commercial
foundries, pump manufacturers are
required to use these standard grades
for their components. By contrast, Sulzer
operates its own foundries in Karhula
(Finland) and in Jundia (Brazil). This
gives the company the option of developing alloys and methods for material
treatment that commercial foundries do
not offer (see Sulzer Technical Review 1/2005,
p. 13). The foundry in Karhula supplies
high-quality, corrosion-resistant steel
and special cast-iron castings primarily
to the companys own factories. Of the
total annual production of some 30 000
castings, almost 90% are made of corrosion-resistant duplex and super duplex
cast steel grades.

Making a standard material better

Even though duplex steel offers outstanding wear properties along with its corrosion resistance, some demanding applications require an enhancement. Precip-

itation hardening is a specific heat treatment that can improve the characteristics
of duplex steel without the need for
expensive additional alloying elements.
This heat treatment strengthens the material by allowing the controlled release of
constituents that form precipitated
nanoscale and microscale intermetallic
clusters. However, it is not applicable to
all duplex grades and bears the risk of
impairing the corrosion resistance and
the toughness of the respective material.
Sulzer has examined several procedures
for the precipitation hardening of duplex
steel containing copper. By varying the
copper content and the parameters of
the heat treatment, Sulzer engineers have
succeeded in improving the wear resistance of the material without undermining
its corrosion properties and toughness.

Proprietary testing knowledge

Various process parameters, such as heating rate, heating temperature, dwell time,
and cooling rate, influence the size and
the distribution of the precipitates. The
optimal control of these two characteristics
provides the balance between the

Sulzer examined several procedures for the precipitation hardening of duplex steel.

What is duplex stainless steel?

The corrosion resistance of stainless
steels is based on the presence of a
substantial amount (>12%) of chromium in the steel. It forms a protective
film of chromium oxide on the surface
that inhibits corrosion. By alloying
other elements like nickel, molybdenum,
nitrogen, titanium, and manganese, it
is possible to achieve a wide range
of mechanical and chemical properties
in the stainless steels.
Stainless steels are categorized into
four groups according to their crystal
structure:
Austenitic stainless steels (facecentered cubic structure)
Ferritic stainless steels (bodycentered cubic structure)
Martensitic stainless steels (bodycentered tetragonal structure)
Duplex stainless steels (mixture of
austenite and ferrite phases)
The austenitic grades are most
popular, but the duplex grades are
the most important for industrial pump
applications. Owing to their two-phase
microstructure consisting of austenite
and ferrite grains, duplex alloys combine the advantages of both steel
groups. They are roughly twice as
strong as purely austenitic stainless
steels. They have significantly better
toughness and ductility than ferritic
grades. They exceed austenitics in
their resistance to stress corrosion
cracking. And these advantages are
not associated with higher costs.
Because of the increased yield
strength, it is often possible to reduce
the section thickness of components
compared with designs based on
austenitic grades. Furthermore, duplex
stainless steels have a lower content
of expensive nickel and molybdenum
than their austenitic counterparts do,
making them a cost-effective and
weight-saving choice for many applications.
Duplex steel combines two different phases:
austenite (white areas) in a ferrite matrix
(grey areas).

200 m

Sulzer Technical Review 2/2013

| 11

NEW MATERIALS

200
180

160

Temp. 1

Time A

Temp. 2

Time B

Temp. 3

Time C

Temp. 4

Toughness [J]

140

Solution annealed

120

100

80

60

40

20
0
240

260

280
300
Hardness [HV10]

320

1 The hardness and the toughness of the steel can be controlled by varying
the precipitation hardening temperature and the dwell time.

resulting increase in strength and the

loss of ductility and toughness. Methods
for the testing and characterization of
the material developed by the experts
at the research unit Sulzer Innotec (see
Sulzer Technical Review 1/2010, p. 11) were
used to optimize the parameters. The
goal was to adapt the ASTM material
A 890 Grade 1B (duplex steel containing
some copper) to make it usable in
challenging pump applications. During
the materials development project, the
following parameters were varied:
Copper content
Solution annealing temperature
of the base material
Heating rate
Treatment temperature for
precipitation hardening
Dwell time
Cooling rate

Improved hardness
The testing clearly showed that there is
only a small temperature range where
hardness and toughness can be optimized.
This temperature range is limited on both
sides by the precipitation of harmful
intermetallics (brittle metallic structures).
However, within that process window,
hardness and toughness can be tuned
over a wide range by choosing the appropriate dwell time (Fig. 1).

12 | Sulzer Technical Review 2/2013

340

pumped liquid is both corrosive and contains fine, abrasive particles.

Improving process reliability

A client who operates a fertilizer production plant wanted to replace the original pumps, which had an insufficient
lifetime. These machines were sealed
with gland packings. This type of seal
works with a lubricating fluid and failed
to seal the aggressive fluid dependably.
Because the customer had had a positive
experience with the Sulzer pumps being
used in the first step of absorption, he
entrusted Sulzer again with the replacement of the second-step pumps.
Based on their experience with the
pumps in first step of the absorption in
the fluor salts manufacturing process,
the Sulzer experts selected a WPP (wearresistant) pump with an open impeller
and a dynamic seal. These seals operate
very reliably with corrosive and abrasive
fluids. The pumps are made from pre-

Measured with a high-velocity slurry

jet, precipitation heat treatment leads to
a significant improvement in wear resistance compared with
The heat-treated material increased the
the reference materireliability of the overall process.
al, which was only
solution annealed.
Corrosion testing of the precipitation- cipitation heat-treated material with a
hardened steel also showed only minor
hardness of 300 HBW. The chosen pumps
relative changes.
operate close to their duty point, which
is essential for efficient hydraulic operExtending pump lifetime
ation.
Sulzer has successfully used this heatIn this case, the combination of pump,
treated material in cases where the
fabrication material, and seal typeall
pumped media are corrosive fluids that
well suited for the applicationled to
contain moderately abrasive solids such
increased reliability of the overall process.
as pure salt crystals. For these applications, This improvement reduced outage and
typically an Ahlstar process pump type
increased the time between repairs. FolWPP with wear-resistant hydraulics is
lowing the successful installation of the
selected. The special material is used for
first pump, several pumpsall made
pump impeller and side platebecause
from specifically heat-treated steelare
these parts are normally the most
now running in same fertilizer production
exposed to wearor for all wetted cast
line.
parts.
Thomas Krnzler
Sulzer Pumps AG
An exemplary application of a pump
Sulzer Allee 25
made from this new material is the
8404 Winterthur
Switzerland
second step of absorption in the fluor
Phone +41 52 262 51 16
thomas.kraenzler@sulzer.com
salts production, which is part of the
production process of phosphoric fertil- Raimo Arola
Sulzer Pumps Finland Oy
izer. As for most chemical processes, the
P.O. Box 66
performance of these pumps is critical
48601 Kotka
Finland
for the production, and the requirements
Phone +358 10 234 3234
raimo.arola@sulzer.com
relating to their reliability are high. The