Manganese steel is an alloy of steel and manganese, containing 11% to 15% manganese, which imparts unique properties such as magnetic and abrasion resistance, extreme durability, and improved surface hardness. However, its strength makes it difficult to work and drill. Most manganese is produced for steel alloys.
Manganese steel, also known as Hadfield steel and mangalloy, is an alloy of steel and manganese. Most steel has a small amount – about 0.15% to 0.8% – of manganese added, but manganese steel contains about 11% to 15% manganese. The addition of manganese to a steel alloy imparts many unique properties, such as magnetic resistance, abrasion resistance, extreme durability, and improved surface hardness without an increase in brittleness. While its high durability is a boon in many industries, it makes this metal very difficult to work and drill, requiring a diamond-tipped drill or other powerful drilling method. Most of all manganese produced and used is added to steel alloys.
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon and usually contains trace amounts of other metals, such as manganese. The normal amount of manganese is light and helps the steel become harder so it can be used to make tools or in construction. Manganese steel adds a significant amount of manganese to the mix, between 11% and 15%, but some metallurgists add up to 25% manganese.
Manganese, when used in such large quantities, gives steel many special properties. While manganese itself is magnetic, this magnetic property is lost when manganese is combined with steel, leaving the metal completely resistant to magnetism. Durability and abrasion resistance also increase dramatically, along with hardness and impact resistance. While most alloys that help hardness increase brittleness, the manganese additive prevents manganese steel from experiencing this brittleness problem, allowing it to pulverize many materials on impact.
While durability and hardness are generally good qualities in a strong metal, especially one used for construction, it is these two qualities that keep manganese steel from being used more frequently. This steel alloy is so strong that it is nearly impossible to drill and cut it to form new parts. Even diamond tipped drills have a hard time drilling this steel and heating will make this alloy stronger than carbon steel. Plasma cutting is one of the few effective ways to cut manganese steel.
The manganese material occurs naturally, but is more often created by heating pyrolusite with charcoal. Manganese has many uses, but most manganese is made to be added to steel, whether for ordinary steel alloys or manganese steel. About 90% of all manganese is produced for this purpose, with the rest being used to raise the octane number in the gas or to alloy with other metals.
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