Niobium is the future

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Mrs_Esterhouse

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After reading Larrin's excellent article: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/02/18/niobium-alloyed-knife-steels/ it's easy to imagine stainless steels of the future holding an edge as well as 15V. The key to this is eliminating vanadium and replacing it with niobium. Adding chromium to a vanadium alloy steel negatively affects vanadium carbide volume. This does not happen with niobium carbide when chromium is introduced. The trouble with niobium, according to the article, is that it clogs the atomization nozzles when producing powdered steels. So it has to be added later in the process as a workaround. Also, a niobium addition to stainless steel does not negatively impact toughness whereas vanadium does. Does anyone know of any powered stainless steels coming out where niobium replaces vanadium?
 
Mrs_Esterhouse said:
After reading Larrin's excellent article: https://knifesteelnerds.com/2019/02/18/niobium-alloyed-knife-steels/ it's easy to imagine stainless steels of the future holding an edge as well as 15V. The key to this is eliminating vanadium and replacing it with niobium. Adding chromium to a vanadium alloy steel negatively affects vanadium carbide volume. This does not happen with niobium carbide when chromium is introduced. The trouble with niobium, according to the article, is that it clogs the atomization nozzles when producing powdered steels. So it has to be added later in the process as a workaround. Also, a niobium addition to stainless steel does not negatively impact toughness whereas vanadium does. Does anyone know of any powered stainless steels coming out where niobium replaces vanadium?
Click to expand...
Interesting information.
 
The biggest one is S110V of course which has a partial replacement of vanadium for niobium with 3% next is SPY27 with 1%. I don’t really see any steels coming with a full replacement of vanadium since that is tied to the Bohler patent where they carburized the powder after atomization. And that patent was granted over a decade ago with no products in sight. Unless it is a 3V type steel with less wear resistance (and less niobium) like the 3V Mod I wrote about which has never been produced commercially. Perhaps we will get more steels that utilize combinations of vanadium and niobium.
 
Only partial replacement of V with Nb. Larrin’s article is fairly comprehensive. SPY27 isn’t mentioned in that article, but it is a new stainless steel with 1% Nb.

I think that you might have misinterpreted Larrin’s article, slightly. I don’t think total elimination of vanadium is necessarily ideal. My understanding is that Bohler adds carbon to high Nb alloys after the powder has been been formed. This seems to be analogous to the process used to add nitrogen to Vanax, which is partly why is so expensive.

I would suggest checking out the Bohler patents that Larrin refers to in the article.

I am personally more interested in seeing Nb modifications to tool steels, such as Z-wear and 4V. However, I would also be interested in lower carbide stainless steel variants with 2% Nb and 2% V.
 
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Niobium replacing at least part of Vanadium, and Nitrogen replacing at least part of the Carbon... or even stuff like Nitinol... who knows?
 
I appreciate it Larrin- anyone who remembers 5th grade chemistry should know that not just the addition of an atom or two means the difference between graphite and diamonds, water and ozone.. or even isomers of the same compounds with completely different properties.
I've been meaning to Patreon for months, I'm jumping on board and encourage you to continue your tireless and fascinating work.

As a huge fan of SM-100 I can speak first hand about why this is not just fun but very significant work.

Love your work!
 
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