Cast Hadfield steel is characterised by high abrasion resistance, provided, however, that it is exposed to the effect of dynamic loads.

During abrasion without loading, e.g. under the impact of loose sand jet, its wear resistance drops very drastically. To increase the abrasion

resistance of this alloy under the conditions where no pressure is acting, primary vanadium carbides are formed in the metallurgical

process, to obtain a composite structure after the melt solidification. The primary, very hard, carbides uniformly distributed in the

austenitic matrix are reported to double the wear resistance of samples subjected to the effect of a silicon carbide-water mixture.