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Wear Plate and Advanced High-Strength Steel

Two groups share this page because both are bought by hardness or strength and used without further heat treatment. Abrasion-resistant plate (AR400, Hardox 450, NM400) is quenched and tempered low-alloy plate at 360–550 HBW, sold for the wear face of buckets, chutes and truck bodies. Advanced high-strength sheet (DP, CP, TRIP, martensitic and press-hardening 22MnB5) is thin automotive sheet whose multiphase microstructure gives 590–1,700 MPa tensile while still stamping — the material of crash rails, B-pillars and bumper beams.

Popular wear plate and AHSS grades

Compare in the explorer
GradeYield, MPaTensile, MPaDensity, g/cm³MachinabilityWeldabilityBest for
AR4001,0501,2507.85PoorGoodFormed and welded wear bodies at about 400 HBW
Hardox 4501,2001,4007.85PoorGoodLiners and buckets; the everyday wear plate
AR5001,3501,6507.85Not recommendedFairWear face only; minimal forming
NM4001,0501,2507.85PoorGoodGB abrasion plate equivalent to AR400
DP7805008307.85FairVery goodStamped crash rails and reinforcements
DP9806801,0307.85PoorGoodHigher-strength stamped structure
22MnB53805607.85GoodGoodHot-stamped, die-quenched to 1,500 MPa

All 49 wear plate and AHSS grades

Choose wear plate and AHSS for

Bucket and hopper liners, chute and screen plates, truck and trailer bodies, crusher and conveyor wear parts; stamped or roll-formed vehicle crash structure, pillars, cross-members, seat rails and bumper beams where strength per kilogram in thin sheet decides.

Look elsewhere when

The wear is sliding metal-on-metal rather than abrasive (hardened 4140 or a nitrided surface), the part is machined to shape rather than cut from plate (through-hardening 4140, or D2 tool steel for extreme wear), impact dominates with little abrasion (shock-resisting S7 or austenitic manganese steel), or a structural part simply needs strength and weldability without hardness (S355J2 or S690QL).

Yield strength against elongation at break, Wear plate & AHSS among every steel grade

No materials in view have both of these properties.

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Wear plate and AHSS by application

Bucket, hopper and chute liners
Hardox 450 or AR450 plate as the general answer; AR500 / NM500 for high-abrasion faces such as screen plates and crusher liners, bolted rather than welded where possible so they can be swapped.
Truck bodies and formed wear structure
AR400 / Hardox 400 / NM400 — the grades that still bend on a press brake at reasonable radii and weld into a body without cracking.
Stamped automotive structure
DP590 and DP780 for most cold-stamped rails and reinforcements; DP980, CP1000 and TRIP Steel where the part must absorb crash energy at higher strength but still form.
Press-hardened and roll-formed parts
22MnB5 (Usibor 1500) hot-stamped for B-pillars, door rings and tunnels; MS1500 / MS1700 roll-formed for bumper and door beams with simple sections.

Working with wear plate and AHSS

Cutting and machining
Plasma and laser cut all grades; oxy-fuel cutting hardened plate above about 20 mm needs preheat to avoid edge cracking. Drilling AR400 is slow but possible with cobalt or carbide tooling at low speed; AR500 is normally cut rather than machined, and holes go in by plasma or carbide drills.
Welding
Weld AR plate with low-hydrogen ER70S-6 or E7018 — a soft filler that does not need to match the plate hardness — and keep heat input low to limit the softened heat-affected zone; preheat AR500 above about 20 mm and avoid welds on the wear face. AHSS sheet spot-welds and laser-welds well; 22MnB5 is welded after hot stamping, and the Al-Si coating on Usibor 1500 must be ablated before laser welding.
Forming
AR400 bends cold at about 3–4 t inside radius across the grain with a wide die; AR500 at 5–6 t or not at all, with cut edges ground smooth first. DP sheet needs larger radii and more springback allowance than mild steel; martensitic grades form only into simple roll-formed sections; 22MnB5 is formed at about 900 °C and quenched in the die.
Heat treatment
None after delivery — these grades arrive quenched and tempered or are hardened as part of hot stamping. Any process above about 200–250 °C (galvanizing, stress relief, hot bending) softens AR plate and DP sheet; if a part must be heat-treated after fabrication, use a through-hardening steel such as 4140 instead.

Other steel series

Wear Plate and Advanced High-Strength Steel — frequently asked

What is wear plate and AHSS?

Two groups share this page because both are bought by hardness or strength and used without further heat treatment. Abrasion-resistant plate (AR400, Hardox 450, NM400) is quenched and tempered low-alloy plate at 360–550 HBW, sold for the wear face of buckets, chutes and truck bodies. Advanced high-strength sheet (DP, CP, TRIP, martensitic and press-hardening 22MnB5) is thin automotive sheet whose multiphase microstructure gives 590–1,700 MPa tensile while still stamping — the material of crash rails, B-pillars and bumper beams.

Which grade of wear plate and AHSS should I use?

AR400 (Hardox 400, NM400) when the plate is still bent, rolled and welded into a body — about 400 HBW with enough toughness for that. AR450 and Hardox 450 are the usual compromise for liners and buckets, and AR500 / Hardox 500 / NM500 go on the wear face only, where forming is minimal and abrasion is the whole problem. In sheet, DP590 and DP780 are the general stamped-structure grades, DP980 and CP1000 for rails and reinforcements, MS1500 for roll-formed bumper and door beams that are barely bent, and 22MnB5 (Usibor 1500, B1500HS) when the part is hot-stamped into a complex shape and quenched in the die to about 1,500 MPa.

Which grade of wear plate and AHSS is the strongest?

Hardox 600 has the highest yield strength in the series at 1,650 MPa; MS1700 follows at 1,450 MPa. Values are for each grade's default condition.

Which grade of wear plate and AHSS is easiest to machine?

37MnB5 (machinability good, 58/100), then 22MnB5 (55/100).

Is wear plate and AHSS heat-treatable?

Some grades are. Check the conditions listed on each grade page.

AR400 or AR500?

AR500 (about 500 HBW) lasts measurably longer than AR400 (about 400 HBW) in sliding abrasion — often 30–50 % — but it barely bends, cracks more easily on welding and impact, and cannot be drilled with ordinary tooling. Use AR400 for anything you will form or weld into a structure (truck bodies, hoppers, buckets) and AR500 as a bolted or lightly welded liner on the wear face. Hardox 450 sits between them and is the usual compromise.

What is the difference between DP, CP, TRIP and martensitic steel?

They differ in the microstructure that gives the strength. Dual-phase (DP590 to DP1180) is soft ferrite with islands of hard martensite: high work hardening and good stretch-forming. Complex-phase (CP800 to CP1200) adds bainite and fine precipitates for better edge stretching and bending at the same strength. TRIP grades keep retained austenite that transforms during forming, giving the best elongation at 600–1,000 MPa. Martensitic (MS1300 to MS1700) is nearly all martensite — the strongest cold-rolled sheet, but it only roll-forms into simple sections.