Shafts in energy applications require high-strength BÖHLER steels with excellent fatigue and toughness. Key quality features include ultra-clean materials, full traceability, controlled heat treatment, and rigorous testing for reliable long-term performance.
Shafts used in energy applications such as turbines, generators, and compressors are highly stressed components operating under continuous rotation, cyclic loading, and often elevated temperatures. Material requirements are therefore focused on high tensile strength, excellent fatigue resistance, fracture toughness, and long-term dimensional stability. In demanding environments, additional properties such as resistance to corrosion, creep, and hydrogen embrittlement are essential to ensure operational safety and extended service life.
BÖHLER high-performance steels and alloys are specifically developed to meet these requirements. Advanced low-alloy and quenched and tempered steels, as well as martensitic and precipitation-hardened grades, provide optimized strength-to-toughness ratios and superior fatigue performance. Produced via advanced melting technologies, BÖHLER materials offer exceptional cleanliness and homogeneous microstructures, reducing the risk of crack initiation under cyclic stress. Key quality features include tight control of chemical composition, certified material traceability, and validated heat treatment processes. Comprehensive mechanical testing, non-destructive inspection, and dimensional verification ensure consistent quality. BÖHLER materials enable reliable, efficient, and long-lasting shaft performance in demanding energy systems.
BÖHLER N700 is a corrosion-resistant steel in the form of bars, wire and forgings in the solution-annealed condition. It is a martensitic, precipitation-hardenable chromium-nickel-copper steel with high strength and toughness. Further increases in strength can be achieved by cold forming and subsequent precipitation hardening. These products are typically used for parts that require higher corrosion resistance than the usual 13% or 17% chromium steels and high strength up to 316 °C. However, their use is not limited to such applications. Remelting processes are used to improve steel purity and homogeneity. (ESR, PESR, VAR) Certain processing methods and operating conditions can make these products susceptible to stress corrosion cracking. For applications such as bolting where stress corrosion cracking is possible, the product should be aged for at least 4 hours at the highest temperature compatible with the strength requirements, but in no case lower than 552 °C. Typical applications for reactor construction and highly stressed pump parts, springs and ship shafts.
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