Specific Effects of Hardness and Mechanical Properties of Steel Shot and Steel Grit on Wear Hardness is the decisive factor

When the hardness of steel shot / Steel Grit is much higher than that of the workpiece being cleaned or ground, the abrasive can effectively penetrate the material surface to achieve efficient derusting, descaling, strengthening or grinding, with high wear efficiency and stable wear rate.

When the abrasive hardness is close to or even lower than that of the workpiece, the abrasive can hardly penetrate the workpiece surface, resulting in slipping, deformation and increased self-breakage. The wear rate of the workpiece drops sharply, and the cleaning / strengthening effect deteriorates significantly.

The key factor is actually the hardness ratio between the abrasive and the workpiece. The higher the ratio, the stronger the cutting and impact wear effects.

Toughness (crush resistance) affects the stability of the wear process

Steel shot / steel grit with good toughness is not easy to break under impact, maintaining complete particles and producing stable impact wear continuously, thus enjoying a longer service life.

Brittle abrasives with poor toughness tend to fragment, leading to a rapid reduction of effective particles, decreased impact wear efficiency, increased dust generation, and unstable overall wear performance.

Particle shape affects the wear mode

Steel shot (spherical): mainly produces impact, forging and surface strengthening effects. The wear is mild and uniform, mainly causing plastic deformation and stress strengthening, with weak cutting wear.

Steel grit (angular): its sharp edges produce cutting and scratching wear, offering higher removal efficiency, but resulting in greater impact on surface roughness and workpiece loss.

Strength and fatigue properties influence long-term wear behavior

Abrasives with high strength and long fatigue life can withstand repeated impacts and maintain stable wear performance over a long period.

Abrasives with insufficient strength will deform, passivate or break quickly, leading to a rapid decline in wear capacity.

Indirect influence of microstructure on wear

Martensitic microstructure features high hardness and good wear resistance, providing stable and efficient impact / cutting wear.

Soft phases such as ferrite and pearlite have low hardness, low wear efficiency and high self-loss.

Carbides have extremely high hardness and can significantly improve wear resistance, but excessive redundant carbides will reduce toughness and cause easy fracture.