Work rolls made of indefinite chill double-poured (ICDP) iron are commonly used in the finishing trains of hot-strip mills (HSMs). In actual service, spalling, apart from other surface degeneration modes, constitutes a major mechanism of premature roll failures. Although spalling can be a culmination of roll material quality and/or mill abuse, the microstructure of a broken roll can often unveil intrinsic inadequacies in roll material quality that possibly accentuate failure. This is particularly relevant in circumstances when rolls, despite operation under similar mill environment, exhibit variations in roll life. The paper provides an insight into the microstructural characteristics of spalled ICED HSM work rolls, which underwent failure under similar mill operating environment in an integrated steel plant under the Steel Authority of India Limited. Microstructural features influencing ICDP roll quality, viz. characteristics of graphite, carbides, martensite, etc., have been extensively studied through optical microscopy, quantitative image analysis (QIA), and electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA). These are discussed in the context of spalling propensity and roll life.

A working roll of 210 mm diam and 500 mm face length was examined because of shell-shaped fractures. The roll consisted of Fe-0.83C-1.6Cr steel. The chromium content was low for a roll of this diam. The crack origin was located about 10 mm under the roil face. Surface hardness (HV1) of 900 kp/sq mm was exceptionally high corresponding to the martensitic peripheral structure. An untempered piece with such a thick cross section and a hardened peripheral zone with such high hardness must have high residual stresses that culminate in the transition zone. Therefore it must be very sensitive against additional stresses, be these of a mechanical or thermal nature. This contributed to the fragmenting of the roll face.

The rim of a gear wheel of 420 mm width and 3100 mm in diam broke after four years of operation time in a sheet bar three-high rolling mill. The rim was forged from steel with about 0.4C, 0.8Si and 1.1Mn. The rim started to break in the tooth bottom from a fatigue fracture which extended from the gear side to more than half the rim width. A second incipient failure commenced from the opposite tooth bottom. Both fractures joined below the tooth of the rim. Both incipient cracks were fatigue fractures with several starting points, all located in the transition between tooth flank and tooth bottom. The remaining failure was a fine-grained ductile fracture. It was found that the teeth were not supported uniformly over the entire width and were thus overloaded on one side. The transition from the tooth flanks to the tooth bottom was sharp-edged, causing a tension peak there. The tooth bottom was machined only roughly. Also, the yield point was a little bit too low.

While in the stationary mode, capillary action at the contact line between roller and race in a steel rolling mill taper bearing caused a concentration of lubricant and moisture to occur. This lead to lines of corrosion pits at roller intervals. During subsequent operation, the individual corrosion pits acted as stress raisers and initiated coarse grain spalling. Due to a bending moment on the rotating element, this in turn initiated bending fatigue normal to the longitudinal axis, which propagated through to the bore of the inner ring. Stain marks were visible in the bore at a spacing corresponding to roller intervals where lubricant had flowed through the cracks from the race.

Several back up rolls of 1400 mm barrel diam from a broad strip mill broke after a relatively short operating time as a result of bending stresses when the rolls were dismantled. The fracture occurred in the conical region of the neck at about 600 mm diam. The rolls were shaped steel castings with 0.8 to 1.0% C, 1% Mn, 1% Cr, 0.5% Mo and 0.4% Ni and were heat treated to a tensile strength of 950 N/sq mm. Because the bending stress on mounting was only 42 N/sq mm in the fracture cross section, it was evident at the outset that material defects had promoted the fracture. In the case of this roll and the other broken rolls, the cracking and fracture were promoted by various casting defects. Investigation of the rolls showed that both the breaking off of the neck and the disintegration of the barrel edges was caused by material defects, more exactly casting defects. The fractures on the other rolls examined were so badly rusted or contaminated that they were incapable of yielding any information.

Investigation of alleged corrosion damage to hot-rolled steel during transit requires metallurgical, chemical, and corrosion knowledge. Familiarity with non-destructive techniques and sampling procedures is necessary. A complete record of shipment history is also required, including the purchasing specifications and observations and photographs taken during surveys enroute. A frequent conclusion of such investigations is that the alleged corrosion is of no significance or did not occur during the voyage.

Several teeth of a bevel pinion which was part of a drive unit in an edging mill failed after three months in service. Specifications required that the pinion be made from a 2317 steel forging and that the teeth be carburized and hardened to a case hardness of 56 HRC and a core hardness of 250 HRB. Two teeth were revealed by visual examination to have broken at the root and fatigue marks extending across almost the entire tooth were exhibited by the surface of the fracture. Cracking in all the tooth was showed by magnetic-particle inspection. The pinion was concluded to have failed by tooth-bending fatigue. Spalling was also noted on the pressure (drive) side of each tooth at the toe end which indicated some mechanical misalignment of the pinion with the mating gear that caused the cyclic shock load to be applied to the toe ends of the teeth.