Abrasion Resistant Steel for Agricultural Equipment
Agricultural equipment manufacturing subjects steel to conditions that quickly expose its weaknesses. Components that contact abrasive soil, grain, and organic crop material accumulate wear across thousands of operating hours, and when they fail, they take equipment offline during the seasons when downtime is most costly.
TruWEAR, our abrasion resistant steel from CMC Impact Metals, is melted and manufactured in the U.S. and produced through an advanced heat treating, quench and tempering process that delivers both hardness and toughness. Available in grades from AR400 through AR650, TruWEAR is offered in plate form up to 0.625" thick and 60" wide, as well as an AR400 flat bar in thicknesses from 0.250" to 1.00" and widths from 2" to 10". Agriculture and bulk material handling are among the primary industries we serve with our AR400 flat bar, and our plate grades cover the full spectrum of agricultural wear requirements. Every product ships with quality documentation under our ISO 9001:2015 certified system.
What Makes Agriculture One of the Hardest Environments for Steel
Agricultural equipment steel has to contend with multiple wear mechanisms at once. Ground-engaging components slide through soil that ranges from soft loam to dense, rocky glacial till. Grain handling equipment faces high-volume, repetitive grain-on-steel friction across auger liners, chute walls, and conveyor surfaces. Harvesting and application equipment adds impact loading from embedded rocks and crop debris, alongside corrosive contact from fertilizers and organic material. The combination of these mechanisms means wear rate, failure mode, and material selection vary significantly depending on where a component sits in the machine.
Hardness alone is not a sufficient specification for any of these environments. A steel that is hard but brittle will crack under impact rather than wear, particularly in cold-weather field conditions. TruWEAR is produced through a quench and tempering process that develops both properties in the same material. Our AR400F and AR450F plate grades carry a Charpy impact rating of 25 ft-lbs at -40°F, and AR500F carries 22 ft-lbs at the same temperature. That combination of hardness and toughness is what keeps components intact under the unpredictable loading conditions agricultural equipment encounters in the field.
TruWEAR in Agricultural Equipment: Grade Selection Across Three Key Areas
Not every component in an agricultural machine wears the same way, and TruWEAR's grade range reflects that. Our AR400F through AR500F plate products are available up to 0.625" thick and 60" wide, and our TruFLAT technology holds plate at 1/4 ASTM A6 flatness on products 0.300" and thinner, which means cut pieces remain flat and consistent through downstream fabrication. Our AR400 flat bar, offered in thicknesses from 0.250" to 1.00" and widths from 2" to 10", is produced as a mill-rolled product with a smooth edge that supports straightness and safer handling across high-volume fabrication runs.
Tillage and Ground-Engaging Components
Grain Handling, Conveying, and Bulk Transfer Equipment
Harvesting, Spreading, and Application Equipment
TruSTRENGTH for Agricultural Structural Applications
Agricultural equipment OEMs face consistent pressure to reduce total machine weight without sacrificing structural capacity. Lighter machines improve fuel efficiency, reduce soil compaction in the field, and in many cases allow for increased payload capacity. TruSTRENGTH high-strength steel is available in grades up to 140 ksi yield strength, in plate up to 0.625" thick and 60" wide, and in bar and angle forms, giving engineers the ability to reduce section thickness in load-bearing structures while maintaining or improving performance. That translates directly to grain cart frames, sprayer booms, planter frames, and equipment lift arms, where standard structural steel adds weight that serves no structural purpose at the loads those components actually see.
Like TruWEAR, TruSTRENGTH is melted and manufactured in the U.S. and produced under our ISO 9001:2015 certified quality system. It is weldable using conventional processes, which means agricultural OEMs can integrate it into existing fabrication workflows without retooling.
Talk to Our Technical Sales Team
Our team can help you match the right TruWEAR or TruSTRENGTH grade and form to each component in your design, whether you are sourcing AR400 flat bar for a high-volume wear strip program or selecting plate grades for a new ground-engaging tool line. Contact us to request specifications, discuss forming and welding requirements, or get a quote.
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