STEEL NAVIGATOR – find the right steel for your needs

BQ-Steel (Bearing Quality) is a bearing quality clean steel optimized for fatigue strength by a strict control of steel cleanliness. BQ-steel is also ideal for new design solutions in a wide array of demanding applications outside the bearing industry that require longer performance and higher loads. The BQ-steel offer is the result of the Ovako clean steel program. Purity of production means that the material has significantly smaller inclusions compared to conventional steel and, as a result, the fatigue strength of the steel is increased dramatically. Use of the material allows components to be manufactured in smaller sizes. The BQ-steel  has for decades been the problem-solver.

IQ-Steel (Isotropic Quality) is an isotropic quality ultra clean steel. IQ-Steel is optimized for fatigue strength by a strict control of steel cleanliness. IQ-Steel, a further development of BQ-Steel, is an isotropic and ultra clean steel with properties that match re-melted steels. Based on thousands of examinations by Ovako into the effects of defects on fatigue performance, the metallurgy of IQ-Steel is purer and far more consistent than conventional grades, and designed specifically to perform well in multi axial loading. This enables the manufacturing of lighter, slimmed down components like gears, bearings and other critical parts. The steels are helping our customers to achieve new design solutions and implement higher standards of finished product performance. Key to these practical advantages are Ovako’s own unique, clean and consistent modern steelmaking processes that remove harmful inclusions and impurities from within the steel. IQ-Steels contain smaller and more fragmented inclusions and can handle much higher mechanical forces in all directions than conventional steels. IQ-Steels are newer, but already now well established in high pressure automotive applications. Modern diesel engines, with high and cyclic injection pressures, have proven to be an ideal application. Transmission components are another emerging area of strong interest.

Hybrid Steel is designed to meet the demands of high-stress, elevated-temperature applications where mechanical and fatigue strength are critical. Traditionally, steels for these applications are produced by expensive small-batch processes. Hybrid Steel, however, enables high volume production at a competitive cost. The result is a steel with up to three times the yield and tensile strength of conventional steel at temperatures up to 500°C. These properties are ideal for a wide variety of highly-stressed applications such as engine components, bearings, and tools for various purposes. And because Hybrid Steel develops its full properties after tempering at temperatures with very low distortion, manufacturers will be able to eliminate production steps. The low distortion enables strongly reduced manufacturing costs, especially when grinding is an important consideration.

M-Steel The concept: Our M-Steel treatment can be applied to any steel grade. The basis for the concept is that non-metallic inclusions are modified and controlled with calcium treatment. These inclusions are modified in a way to maximise machinability and to improve transverse fatigue strength. In this way, a protective layer is formed on the cutting tool during machining that very significantly reduces the wear on the tool and increases the tool life. At every stage of the M-Steel production process the material is optimised to improve machinability, from raw material through melt, to casting, hot rolling and the final heat treatment. Individual delivery requirements can be met to supply your material in the best form for your machines in compliance with tight straightness and dimensional tolerances. M-Steel has a consistent machinability from cast to cast, meaning that machines can be run with  fixed high cutting rates and predictable tool change intervals from one production run to another. Recent findings also show that the M-Steel effect is particularly pronounced in turning in very hard condition using Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) inserts. Replacing traditional grinding of case- or induction-hardened surfaces with Hard Part Turning can mean very large cost savings, together with production lead time and quality improvements.

WR-Steel (Wear resistant ) WR-steel, stands for wear-resistant steel. This group of steel includes a broad range of grades with a wide range of hardness levels 350 – 650 HV, dimensions and steel grades designed to give you a wear-resistant advantage when making product exposed to a high degree of wear and where service life is important. WR-steels are characterised by consistent properties and cost effectiveness due to optimized alloy content for different end applications. 

SZ-Steel, which refers to sub-zero temperatures, is a family of steel that has proven to retain properties for safer and more reliable performances in temperatures down to –40°C and below. The impact toughness of the steel is a key factor in creating reliable solutions in cold climates, especially in applications where a high-strength steel would be the best design solution. The family of SZ-Steel from Ovako has been optimized to allow the impact strength required at high strength levels and low temperature applications.

CEV=%C + %Mn/6 + (%Cr+%Mo+%V)/5 + (%Ni+%Cu)/15
The carbon equivalent formula CEV is one of the most widely used because it is a good measure of the hardenability for conventional steels. CEV is preferable for common carbon steels and carbon-manganese steels.

Pcm= %C + %Si/30 + (%Mn+%Cu+%Cr)/20 + %Ni/60 + %Mo/15 + %V/10 + 5B
Pcm is designed for newer steels with low carbon, low alloy content. The effect of carbon becomes critical to an HAZ containing large amounts of martensite. Thus Pcm is a good indicator of hydrogen-assisted cracking in the HAZ because carbon is a heavily weighted factor in this formula as shown above.

DI, (the ideal diameter ), value refers to the largest diameter of steel bar that can be quenched to produce 50% martensite in its center. The larger the ideal diameter value, the more  hardenable is the steel. DI values are an excellent means of comparing the relative hardenability of two materials as well as determining if it is possible to harden a particular cross  section of a given steel.

Note! The DI value is expressed in inches.