MANGANESE- The Alloying Metal for Steel Making

MANGANESE- An Alloying Element in Steel Making

Alloying element is any metallic element that is added during the making of steel for purpose of increasing corrosion resistance, hardness or strength. The most common ferrous metal, Manganese (Mn) is one of the important alloying agents. The following are the fundamental benefits of Manganese as alloying agent:

????It is a mild oxidant acting as a cleanser taking Sulphur & oxygen out of the melt into the slag.

????Manganese combines with Sulphur to form globular manganese sulfides, essential in free cutting steels to ensure good machinability.

????Manganese is de-Sulphurizer, forms stable, high melting sulfide particles

????It enhances hardness, strength, abrasion resistance & hardenability of steel

Almost 90% of Manganese consumption is accounted for by the steel industry globally, because Manganese is essential and irreplaceable in steelmaking and its global mining industry is dominated by only a few nations.

In order to add Manganese as an alloying element in steelmaking as ferroalloys, mainly silicomanganese, ferromanganese etc. are used and this is made from manganese ore (Pyrolusite MnO2, Manganite Mn2O3.H2O, Braunite 3Mn2O3. MnSiO3, Hausmannite Mn3O4, rhodochrosite MnCO3). Therefore, before adding these manganese-based ferroalloys in steelmaking, it is essential to evaluate the quality of both the raw materials & Ferro Alloys.

Both IS & ISO methods for estimation of Manganese in Mn alloys as well as Manganese ores are feasible in Mitra SK Laboratories.

MSK Laboratories prefer the ISO method of the Final Determination of Manganese content in Manganese ores & Manganese-based Ferroalloys, through the Potentiometer method, specified by the ISO Standard. Whereas the IS method follows the conventional wet chemical method, the ISO methods are much faster and accurate, as permissible tolerance limit is very less & well accepted internationally.