WEAR PROTECTION

CONVEYOR TECHNOLOGY
STAHLOTEC - ONE STEP AHEAD
HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS TO COUNTER WEAR
stahlotec GmbH sees itself as a pioneer in the field of auto- Alongside the production areas already mentioned, stahl-
mated welding processes, in the wear and corrosion protec- otec GmbH has focused on the manufacture and optimisa-
tion of conveyor technology for the bulk-materials-proces- tion of components for conveying, crushing, mixing, separa-
sing industry, and in the complex production and welding of tion and extrusion technology for many years.
copper components for the steel-producing industry.
Based in Hagen a.T.W., the company specialises in the
Since 2002, stahlotec GmbH – based in Hagen a.T.W. in the automated laser cladding process, laser welding, laser har-
Osnabrück area of Lower Saxony – has been a competent dening and PTA welding on components and welded as-
partner and service provider for the processing and machi- semblies, such as screw shafts. For the above-mentioned
ning of steel, aluminium, copper and special alloys. Other areas, the company produces machine, plant and conveyor
areas of expertise include wear protection, 3D scanning, technology for a very broad customer base across different
reverse engineering, mobile spectral analysis and coating industrial sectors.
thickness measurement.
From prototypes and supporting field tests through to se-
Among other things, stahlotec GmbH designs, manufactu- ries production, stahlotec supplies everything from a sing-
res and coats components, spare parts and wear parts that le source. In addition to a very high reproducibility in the
meet the most demanding of standards in terms of wear and design of the screw shafts, the focus is on the functional
corrosion protection. They are successfully used in agricul- coating and temperature resistance, as well as the wear and
ture, road construction and open-cast mining, as well as in corrosion protection based on the bulk-material specifica-
the steel and iron, glass and cement, concrete, refractory, tion available.
brickworks and metallurgical industries.

Small and medium-sized companies, as well as industrial

groups, appreciate the expertise, reliability and above all the CRAFTWORK 4.0
flexibility stahlotec provides. Over the past 20 years, stahl-
otec has earned this reputation through steady growth and
continuous process optimisation. A passion for cutting-ed- This also includes the state-of-the-art, specialised equip-
ge technology, coupled with continuous investment in re- ment park modelled on Industry 4.0. Building on many years
search and development of new technologies, are the key of experience and on-going optimisations, stahlotec GmbH
to success here. has production and coating processes specially developed
in-house, as well as plants and production lines that can be
individually adapted to customer products. Alongside fully
automatic welding robots, the machinery – commissioned
in 2020 – is the largest welding laser system in northern
Germany.

STAHLOTEC SCREW CONVEYORS

CONVEYOR TECHNOLOGY

Bulk materials are not only transported, dosed, crushed and

mixed across various industrial sectors. They are also fed in
and out, stored and pressed, not to mention extruded and
dried. In addition to corrosion, extreme wear often occurs in
these areas on units such as screw shafts, sleeves, troughs,
chutes and linings. This often progressive wear inevitably
leads to shorter production times and, in the worst case,
to breakdowns in Production. Unplanned downtimes in for-
ward contracts not only jeopardise the schedule, but are
FOR INFORMATION AND PROJECT ENQUIRIES, CONTACT ANDREAS also usually very costly.
FRISCHE – HEAD OF WEAR PROTECTION & CONVEYOR TECHNOLOGY

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
 DOWNTIMES ARE
AVOIDABLE
The reasons why components wear or fail are often complex. of the screw shafts. This mixed compound of base material
And again, investigating the circumstances is very costly and hard coating is often significantly harder than individu-
and time-consuming. In our experience, common reasons al components within the bulk material. Alongside certain
for extreme wear and subsequent failure are due to incorrect positive aspects such as versatility and easy handling, un-
design, constant changes in the bulk-material specification, fortunately the hand-guided processes also have significant
caking material, operating errors and foreign matter. disadvantages compared to automated processes. What’s
more, these processes result in significantly greater blending
Most manufacturers of plant and conveyor technology in the with the base material. The blend is approx. 30-40%, which
bulk-materials-processing industry have defined their own represents a significant loss of hardness for the hard coa-
empirical values and also their own standards. Screw shafts ting layer, as well as significantly larger heat-affected zones,
or screw flights made of HB steels have become very popu- and by extension hardened, embrittled areas. These partial
lar in the bulk-materials industry as a cost-effective, proven hard coatings often cause trouble in the conveying process
means of providing simple wear protection. HB steels are by slowing down and compressing the bulk material, or by
commonly referred to as steels containing chromium and inducing pulsating conveying currents. These disruptive and
carbon, hardened in air, water or oil. HB steels are not only artificially created resistances and barriers slow down the
inexpensive, but also very tough and relatively easy to weld natural movement and thus the material flow of the bulk ma-
and machine with normal means for simple applications. terial. This gives the mineral and hard components in the
They also often have a hardness of 300-500 HB and are the- bulk material more time to work through the components
refore a proven, cost-effective means for simple bulk mate- due to abrasion, among other things. Often, actual prob-
rials such as lime and gypsum. If you take into account the lem areas are shifted by partial changes or hard coatings,
bulk-material characteristics when designing various screw and the wear occurs at another point of the component (see
shafts, as well as the grain shape, composition and hard- Image 1 & 2, hole in the pipe). These barriers also sometimes
ness, then you quickly recognise when the limits of these result in the designed or planned filling quantity of the shaft
HB steels are reached. being significantly exceeded, and thus the shaft is subjected
to significantly more load. The material therefore remains in
Well-known equipment manufacturers also refer to their own the trough or pipe housing for much longer.
standards in Production, which are referred to as “original
equipment quality” (OE quality). OE quality is often not parti-
cularly robust or high quality, and indeed rather utilitarian. At
first glance, this simple equipment is cheap and, given the
competitive nature between rival companies, is a fairly stan-
dard market approach. In addition to the above-mentioned
points, manufacturers of such bulk-material plants also have
an increased interest in the after-sales business.

THE CYCLE BEGINS

Image 1

Spare parts do not often match the expected or agreed

service life. One of the first steps after a possible accident
or production failure is usually to reinforce or change the
sheet thickness and tube thickness of the original equip-
ment quality. While this of course makes the screw shafts
thicker and more robust on one hand, it also makes them
significantly heavier. As part of the next step, screw shafts
with different material combinations of normal or HB steels
with hard coatings are often used in the field. In this case,
the component’s basic design largely remains the same:
original equipment quality plus hard coating with electrode,
strip, solid or cored wire. The hard coating is manually wel-
ded to the presumed significant areas Image 2

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
If increasing the material thicknesses and applying partial If the Mohs scale and the principle of “hard grinds soft”
wear protection surfaces does not result in the desired suc- are taken into consideration for designs and constructions
cess, composite sheets are often used instead. Composite made of composite armour plates and, in addition, a bulk
sheets are armour plates comprising two materials. Unalloy- material of quartz sand (hardness approx. 900-1200 HV) is
ed or low-alloy steels are often used as a base material. For conveyed, this wear protection appears more suitable than
hard coatings, an Fe-Cr-C steel is often used, which can be the previously mentioned HB steels at first glance. Howe-
used as strip, solid or flux-cored wire, optionally with carbi- ver, composite armour plates also have many significant and
des (supplied separately) that are embedded or form them- crucial disadvantages. Depending on the different matrices,
selves during the process. The finished product is a com- more or fewer cracks appear in the hard coating layer, also
posite armour plate, e.g. 8 mm total thickness, consisting known as “relaxation cracks”. Initially, these do not appear
of 5 mm steel and approx. 3 mm hard coating – commonly dangerous for the coating or functional layer. The problem
referred to as 5+3, 6+4, etc. (see Images 3 & 4). that can result from this is that these relaxation cracks can
continue to grow under heavy impact loads or when defor-
med. They then often reach into the base material of the
component and consequently lead to fracture when in use
or under dynamic load (see Images 5, 6 & 7).

Image 3 Image 5

Image 4 Image 6

This variant is also relatively inexpensive to produce. Here,

using different welding processes and filler metals, a func-
tional layer with different properties can be economically ap-
plied to a base material and then cut out or formed relatively
easily. In practice, composite armour plates are also often
used on the front and back of screw flights and on the cen-
tre tube for screw shafts, and any gaps or joints that occur
are welded and plastered. The surfaces achieve hardness
values of 700-950 HV with different matrices.

Image 7

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
Contrary to what is advertised and indeed popular opinion, To make matters worse, as previously mentioned, the de-
these composite or armour plates are not suitable for dyna- sign often continues to match the original equipment qua-
mically loaded constructions, or only partially suitable. Their lity, without being redesigned or further adapted. This also
use should therefore be predominantly limited to applica- means that a newly plated shaft is subsequently significantly
tion areas such as linings. In the case that not only the base heavier than the original equipment quality shaft. As a con-
flights of an existing shaft are partially plated, but the screw sequence, this results in the screw shaft sagging further in
shaft is constructed entirely from composite armour pla- the middle than intended due to the higher dead weight. A
tes, it should be taken into account that these same flights design failure is a given by this point and a break as shown
will be significantly more solid than the original equipment in the picture will only take a matter of time.
quality. Armouring composite sheets not only causes stress (see Image 12)
peaks (wave-shaped penetrations) and cracks, but the com-
ponent also loses considerable amounts of substrate mate-
rial. What’s more, the hard coating and the resulting embritt-
lement also significantly reduce flexibility and ductility. In the
following images, the cracks going through the hard coating
layer into the base metal – which were caused by the wel-
ding process, the residual stress and the filler metal – have
been made visible and marked using fluorescent paint.
(see Images 8, 9, 10 & 11)

Image 12

Every wear pattern and every wear phenomenon is unique in

Image 8 its form. Unfortunately, not all wear and tear is the same. In-
stead, we are talking about many factors compounding one
another to cause these phenomena. This is often referred to
as a stress collective. Theoretically, the phenomena can be
categorised into four different types of wear. These are:

Image 9

Adhesion Abrasion

Image 10

Tribochemical reaction Surface shattering

However, all types have the surface removal of the workpie-

ce in common. Not all bulk materials are the same, and hard-
ness alone is often not the be all and end all. Unfortunately,
in practice, a comprehensive investigation of bulk-material
characteristics is rarely commissioned or taken into account
as part of the design process. However, bulk materials differ
greatly in their properties. In addition to composition and
fluidity, size, grain shape, texture and hardness, as well as
Image 11 moisture content and chemistry play a significant role.

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
What’s more, the ambient and ancillary conditions such as tool available for use. These intelligent tools automatically
the installation situation, temperature and design must also synchronise with the surface data of the component on the
be taken into account when designing screw conveyors. line, using an upstream and automated 3D scan. Subse-
Practical example: Secondary fuel Fluff, SBS, RDF, caking quently, the components’ coating areas can be determined
sludge and liquid phase. (see Image 13) within a few seconds and the welding paths can be automa-
tically calculated and executed by means of laser-cladding
path programming.

On this welding laser system, which was installed in 2020,

components measuring up to 12,000 mm in length (up to
15,000 mm if required), and with a diameter of up to 5,000
mm with a weight of up to 10 tonnes can be processed au-
tomatically. Thanks to its modular design, the laser centre
is ideal for one-off production and prototyping. However, all
Image 13
the necessary provisions have also been made for small to
large-scale series processes.
Wear can be influenced relatively well in the area of materi-
als handling technology through sound analysis in advance. To use the laser centre multifunctionally in practice, an H-
If the design – i.e. size, degree of filling, conveying speed, positioner with a centre width of 2 x 2,800 mm, an L-posi-
shaft geometry, material composition of the wear protection tioner with a tool radius of up to 2,200 mm and a flexibly
– is taken into account alongside factors such as the instal- displaceable linear axis with a centre width of up to 12,000
lation situation and arrangement of the screw flights, wear mm were all installed.
can be incorporated as a system property and less as an
individual material property. For laser cladding, the system is equipped with both zoom
optics and fixed spot-size optics. The hardening process
Our customers’ products require flexible wear protection via laser can also be completed using the built-in hardness
and, by extension, a wear protection system that can be optics and pyrometry. Other key methods for precisely ana-
easily adapted to the constantly changing and growing re- lysing wear, such as mobile spectral analysis and 3D scan-
quirements of customers and Production. Unfortunately, ning (in-house and mobile) are also included in the service
this protection is not available as standard. For optimum portfolio.
protection, the wear protection system should always be
individually adapted to the needs of the customer and their
particular bulk material. WHAT IS LASER CLADDING?
WEAR PROTECTION EXPERTS The use of laser radiation in material machining for proces-
ses such as cutting, welding, hardening and many other
stahlotec GmbH specialises in choosing appropriate wear procedures has been considered state of the art for many
protection systems and the stahlotec ForeKast wear protec- years. On the one hand, its use in welding technology is
tion service is unique to the market, particularly in the area suitable given that the component geometry is only mini-
of the bulk-materials-processing industry (designing screw mally impaired, while on the other hand, the materials to be
shafts, individual pieces, prototypes and series products). welded are only minimally thermally impaired. Thanks to a
Using tried-and-tested calculation tools, stahlotec selects focussed energy input and minimal changes to the base ma-
the wear protection system and material composition of the terial, the ‘laser build-up welding’ process is characterised
hard coating or functional layer based on the actual bulk- by minimal distortion.
material specification, as well as the real-world circumstan-
ces and prevailing ancillary conditions. The proven stahlotec In direct comparison with the protective coatings created
ForeKast service classifies different types of wear – such by thermal spraying, the bond with the base material is
as abrasion, adhesion, surface shattering, corrosion and produced by fusion metallurgy. Compared to conventional
temperature. This knowledge is then used to develop the welding processes, laser build-up welding is not only cha-
most sustainable way to effectively counteract wear caused racterised by the aforementioned minimal energy input, but
by impact, sliding and shock effects as part of the process. also by a very low build-up on the base material. This results
Thanks to an ultra-modern and modular laser centre with a in a lower loss of hardness than with conventional welding
10 kW diode laser and various optics, stahlotec is able to methods. A further advantage is the precise, near-net-shape
process components such as screw shafts, tools, spare and weld build-up.
wear parts in one go. Here, in addition to new visualisation
software, the company also has a new weld seam, coating, In addition, materials that are classified as not practically
hardening and path planning weldable with conventional welding methods due to their
high carbon content can be welded using lasers if neces-
sary.

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
In summary, the following conclusion can be drawn about without great effort. Coatings can also be applied to both
the laser build-up welding process. very small and very large components. Coating materials
and properties can be combined and filler metals can be
The coatings are characterised by a fine-grained structure, mixed as required.
high density and perfect adhesion as a result of melt-me-
tallurgical bonding. The minimal intermixing with the base The selected wear protection is always mixed and combined
material allows significantly lower layer thicknesses when individually according to bulk-material specifications. Due to
directly compared to conventional hard surfacing and thus a the different spot sizes, it is possible to achieve a high con-
significantly lower loss of hardness, as well as a significantly tour accuracy that is highly precise. If necessary, functional
reduced need for filler metal. layers can also be applied very close to the final contour,
which often eliminates the need for time-consuming and
LASER CLADDING PROCEDURE costly reworking, e.g. diamond grinding. Components such
as screw shafts, whose areas are exposed to varying de-
grees of stress in the process, can be specifically protected
When laser cladding, the surface of the component to be or upgraded via the laser process precisely where wear and
coated is melted locally. In the melt created by the laser corrosion actually occur or are most severe.
beam in the base body, the welding filler material required
for the application is pneumatically conveyed in powder For complicated contours, in urgent cases or when the re-
form through different dosing pots by means of delivery ho- quired original parts cannot be procured, it is possible to
ses and introduced into the component’s melt pool through rapidly 3D print complex geometries or significant areas at
a nozzle. The 2D and 3D movement of the optics and pow- short notice to match the article. Upon completion, a 3D
der nozzle create weld tracks or weld beads on the compo- scan can be taken to create a template for an automated
nent to be coated. In contrast to arc processes such as PTA RetroFIT as part of a special service for our customers. In
or coatings with electrode/flux cored wire, carbides inten- this instance, it is easily possible to automatically recon-
tionally added to the powder – such as tungsten carbides dition the components based on an agreed wear rate and
– are not destroyed. These carbide materials are embedded period of time – such as an overhaul. This can also be done
undamaged in a melt bath of the base body and powder several times.
matrix.

For enquiries and further information on wear protection,

ADVANTAGES OF STAHLOTEC PROTEC- materials handling technology and other production opti-

TION OR FUNCTIONAL LAYER ON SCREW ons, please contact the author of this article and Head of
Wear Protection and the Materials Handling Technology di-
SHAFTS vision at stahlotec directly.

Since the process window for this welding process is very

small yet controlled, the risk of the introduced carbides sin-
king to the bottom is very low – unlike in welding processes
such as PPA/PTA, oxyacetylene, electrode or flux-cored wel-
ding. This creates homogeneous layers and the carbide is
evenly distributed throughout the layer. Further advantages
are high reproducibility, a high degree of automation, as well
as short processing times and high energy efficiency. Given
a very low compounding rate below 5%, a significantly lo-
wer loss of hardness and less distortion of the components
is achieved. Layer thicknesses of 0.2-6 mm and layer widths
of 0.5-10 mm or even 20 mm can be produced in different
surface qualities.

Using this process, significantly thinner functional or wear

protection layers are required for a comparable application
or conveying process than can be produced with conventio-
nal welding processes. In direct comparison, a 1-mm-thick
laser hard-coating layer can withstand at least as much as
a 3-5-mm-thick filler wire layer with the same alloy. This re-
sults in a significantly lower additional weight and need for
filler metal. Repairs to defective components can be carried
out quickly and FOR INFORMATION AND PROJECT ENQUIRIES, CONTACT ANDREAS
FRISCHE – HEAD OF WEAR PROTECTION & CONVEYOR TECHNOLOGY

stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
stahlotec GmbH - Heideweg 8a - 49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany | Head of Wear Protection - Andreas Frische
a.frische@stahlotec.de | +49 5405 80 449 - 28 | +49 172 580 6961 | www.stahlotec.de
FLEXIBILITY
IS OUR STRENGTH

stahlotec GmbH info@stahlotec.de

Heideweg 8a www.stahlotec.de CEO:
49170 Hagen a.T.W., Germany +49 5405 80 449 - 00 Christian Neyer