Grade of Steel for Rollers

[RyanMark]

Hello!
I am designing a rolling mill for cold reduction of non-ferrous metals, specifically phosphor bronzes with 8% tin or more. The mill will be a 2-Hi design with 24" of usable length on the rollers. Their thickness has yet to be determined, as does the material they will be made from. I think that 4140 would ideal, but I'm wondering if I could get away with 1045. Both are available locally. There also is a heat treating facility nearby, and I would like some opinions on case hardening of either alloy. I assume that machining of the rollers would need to be performed before heat treatment, and I'm concerned about warpage and distortion, the slightest of which could render the rollers unusable and unable to be re-machined due to hardness. Thanks for any advice!
Ryan

 

[RyanMark]

Actually, I found some work rolls online and they are tool steel, I think.

 

[salmon2]

I think you are right that you are better off to go with tool steel because 4140/1045 will suffer from quick wear. You can carburize them to get surface hardness up but still not a good idea because later you may want to grind them to another size. Also, you can do final machining after heat treatment to avoid distortion. I know it is hard but that is the way to do it. Tooling is expensive investment.

 

[swall]

D-2 tool steel is commonly used for mill rolls.

 

[TVP]

Ryan,

Neither 1045 nor 4140 is appropriate for this type of service. Proper cold work tool steels such as D2, A2, etc. are the standards to begin the selection process.

 

[EdStainless]

For large diameter rolls they are usually cast and of a tool steel like composition.
There is a chapter on this in an ASM handbook.

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Plymouth Tube

 

[Wrenchbender]

A tool steel similar to H13 with a higher carbon content has successfully been used for very long lifecycles. 'Good' usually = 'expensive'. You might look into

http://www.sfsrolls.com/index.aspx

 

[WESHardmetal]

If you are looking for a high wear resistant material, I would suggest Tungsten Carbide.

This page has loads of information on it:

http://www.wesltd.com/divisions/hardmetal/html/TungstenCarbide.html