The wear types marked in blue in the figure represent areas where various grades of Hardox^® steel are commonly used. In addition, Hardox^® steel is also effective against surface fatigue, squeezing and adhesion wear.

Although sliding wear is predominant, the visible surface damage shown here is due to abrasive impact wear.

Abrasion is a broad term, but in this context it refers to wear caused by hard abrasive material, such as ore or rocks, acting on a steel surface.

• Sliding wear occurs when abrasive materials slide or roll across a steel surface. Hard abrasive particles can create long, deep scratch marks, whereas weaker abrasive edges may break or become rounded, causing much less severe damage.

Impact wear occurs when abrasive materials, such as rocks or sand, strike a surface at a specific impingement angle. The velocity, impingement angle and the mass of the abrasive material significantly influence the wear rate.

• Particle erosion happens when small abrasive particles impact a surface. These particles often withstand the impact energy without breaking or pulverizing, causing most of the damage to occur on the steel surface.
• Abrasive impact involves larger solid abrasives striking a surface. These abrasives typically consist of hard minerals bonded together in a matrix that can vary in strength. The impact energy can fracture the matrix to varying degrees, and the resulting crushed minerals cause different levels of damage to the steel.