Applied research · Cold Facts column #7 · July 2026
Mechanisms Behind Deep Cryogenic Treatment in Ground Engagement Tools
Mining ground-engaging tools (GET) such as shovel teeth fail in two main ways: progressive fatigue cracking and sudden impact fracture. This column explains how deep cryogenic treatment works against both.
By Jack Cahn, Chief Technologist · First published in Cold Facts, Cryogenic Society of America, Vol. 42 No. 3, July 2026
Key points
- Fatigue cracks start at carbide interfaces, inclusions or areas of tensile stress and grow over thousands of impacts until the tooth breaks.
- High-chrome white iron: DCT turns retained austenite left from casting into fine martensite, reducing carbide pull-out and micro-crack starts.
- 13% manganese steel: DCT refines dislocation structures and makes work hardening more uniform under impact.
- Compressive residual stress from DCT works against the tensile loads that open fatigue cracks, which means fewer broken teeth and fewer fragments entering crushers.
- Unlike over-hardening, DCT does not create coarse brittle phases, so the part keeps its toughness.
- In cutting tools the gain is mostly edge retention; in mining GET the biggest economic gain is preventing breakage and improving reliability.
This is DCI's summary. The full article, with its figures and references, is in the PDF above.
Related on this site
Mining wear parts · Case study: shovel teeth
First published in Cold Facts, the magazine of the Cryogenic Society of America, July 2026. Shared here by the author.
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