Manganese (Mn)

Alloying Element – Manganese

Manganese is one of the most common alloying elements. It is added to almost all Steel, stainless steel, and aluminum alloys. In each one of them, it has a different role. In steel, it helps with heat treatment. In stainless steel, it is a nickel substituted and in Aluminum to enhance strength.

• In Steel (up to 2.5% ): Manganese is frequently used in steel to enhance quenching. When steels are heated and quenched to increase hardness and strength, the quench must be done rapidly. The faster this rate, the more unstable the process becomes. Manganese enables reaching similar results at a slower quench rate. It helps to reduce the risk of defects forming during the process. Almost all steel materials, both carbon and alloy steel, will have up to 1% of Manganese content. Higher content, around 2%, can be found only in a handful of alloys such as A6, 1335, and 1144.
• Stainless Steel (up to 20%): Manganese, like nickel, is an Austenite forming element. It is used as a substitute for nickel in the AISI 200 Series of Austenitic Stainless Steels. For example, AISI 202, a common replacement for 303, has 5% Nickel and 10% Manganese. (AISI 303 has 10% Nickel and only 1.5% of Manganese). Decreasing nickel content and increasing manganese results in higher strength buy weaker corrosion resistance. In higher content (15-20%), Manganese provides excellent resistance to galling under high torque conditions. This is especially useful in demanding drilling applications, where Staballoy AG17 is used.
• Aluminum (up to 1.5%): Manganese is added to Aluminum to increase its strength and hardness and enhance corrosion resistance. Most of the common Aluminum alloys used in machining have around 0.3% content of Manganese.
• The most famous Manganese steel is Hadfield steel (Also nicknamed Mangalloy with 12-14% manganese content. Renowned for its high impact strength and resistance to abrasion, it used in the mining industry for many years, safes, and bulletproof surfaces. It is not possible to machine (Zero Machinabiliy). Parts are made by forging and plasma/laser cutting.

Raw Materials by Manganese content