Need of Improved Non-Destructive Technique for the Surface Condition Monitoring of High Speed Steel (HSS) Work Rolls

Abstract

Over the last few years, the use of work rolls for hot rolling of flat steel has changed from clear chill rolls to indefinite chill, then came high chrome steel and now High Speed tool Steel (HSS). The hardness of HSS roll reaches 80/85 ShC, hence it becomes very much crack-sensitive and the developed crack is usually oriented parallel to the roll axis and propagates in a non-radial direction. In the next phase, a fatigue “cat’s tongue” like fracture band propagates progressively in a circumferential direction running more or less parallel to the barrel surface. The direction of propagation is opposite to that of the direction of roll rotation. Crack propagation develops within the working surface of the roll, gradually increasing in depth and width followed by a large surface spall of the overlying barrel surface. Hence it is highly recommended to eliminate all kinds of surface cracks, whenever these rolls are reground, otherwise these `cats – tongue’ band type spalls may lead to abnormal failure. This paper presents the necessity of development of improved non-destructive technique for the crack detection of HSS rolls and also highlights the recent attempts at Tata Steel in collaboration with CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur to develop surface wave based ultrasonic technique to detect fine cracks on the barrel surface of HSS rolls to optimise the grinding procedure for having crack free roll surface.