a nickel - rich wear resistant alloy designed primarily for use in high temperature applications such as valve seat inserts and the like is disclosed herein . the alloy is a nickel rich multi - phase alloy metallurgically designed to achieve intermetallic strengthening within a eutectic reaction solidification substructure . due to its unique strengthening mechanisms , the alloy has a relatively high compressive yield strength and toughness compared with commercially available nickel - based valve seat alloys , particularly at elevated temperature . the alloy also exhibits a relatively low thermal expansion coefficient which is an advantage for exhaust valve seat insert applications . the combination of high compressive strength at elevated temperature and low thermal expansion coefficient indicates that the alloy should have excellent insert retention capabilities for exhaust insert applications . the alloy is preferably free of large primary carbides and coarse solidification substructures . the high temperature wear resistance and strength of the alloy is preferably achieved by its hard intermetallic phases and finely distributed solidification substructure . the alloy preferably includes a high chromium content and is preferably free of conventional mc type carbide alloying elements , such as niobium and tantalum . further , by combining carbon , silicon , and chromium in accordance with preferred embodiments of the alloy hardness , strength , and wear resistance can be substantially improved while providing very desirable microstructures for valve seat insert applications . an additional advantage of the alloy is that solid - state phase transformation reactions preferably do not occur within a temperature range from 25 - 1000 ° c ., thus , the alloy does not require heat treatment to achieve high hardness , strength , and thermal dimensional stability for elevated temperature applications . the alloy can exhibit improved wear performance when run against conventional nickel - based valve materials such as inconel 751 and nimonic 80a as well as cobalt - based valve facing materials known as stellite 1 . excellent wear performance of the alloy has been demonstrated in the plint te77 high temperature reciprocating wear test ( astm standard g133 ). the alloy outperforms other insert alloys such as cobalt - based j3 and nickel - based bx2 ( representative of alloys in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 200 , 688 ) as tested against inconel 751 in both the intake and exhaust temperature ranges . the alloy also outperformed bx2 in wear tests with nimonic 80a . further , the alloy outperforms both cobalt - based j3 and iron - based j130 as tested against stellite 1 within the exhaust temperature range . due to its unique alloy design concept , the alloy is significantly differentiated from any current commercially available nickel - based alloy , particularly for valve seat insert applications . historically , numerous high temperature strengthening mechanisms have been applied to a nickel matrix to make nickel - based superalloys among the most widely utilized metallic materials for elevated temperature applications . desired material properties of nickel - based alloys include elevated temperature fatigue strength , creep strength , hot hardness , corrosion resistance , and oxidation resistance . primary concerns for valve seat insert materials , such as j96 and j100 ( ref . sae std . j1692 ), has been high insert outside diameter ( o . d .) deformation and seat surface wear . insert o . d . deformation leads to loss of interference fit potentially resulting in catastrophic engine failure due to insert drop - out . insert drop out is primarily an exhaust valve seat insert issue and is caused by a combination of high insert operating temperature , high thermal expansion coefficient relative to cast iron , and low compressive yield strength at elevated temperature . seat surface wear of j96 and j100 is primarily caused by a combination of low matrix strength and the fracturing of large rod - like primary carbides which occurs as the matrix deforms ( see fig1 ). in recent years , combustion pressure in diesel engines has been trending higher to meet goals of both engine performance and emissions reduction . this trend has been accompanied by an increased use of nickel - based valve materials , such as inconel 751 and nimonic 80a , to take advantage of their improved high temperature fatigue strength relative to iron - based valve materials . in some recent applications with nickel - based valves , higher wear rates of nickel - based insert materials have been observed . as such , there is an industry need for a new valve seat insert material which possesses higher strength and lower thermal expansion coefficient as well as a microstructure that improves wear performance compared to commercially available nickel - based valve seat inserts . to meet this combination of objectives , improvements to matrix strength and reduction of carbide size was investigated in developing a nickel - rich alloy referred to herein as the j73 alloy . the j73 alloy was designed to meet this need as well as the continuing need for improved wear performance with iron or cobalt - based valve or valve facing materials . in a preferred embodiment , it is desired that the nickel - rich j73 alloy exhibits improvement in wear resistance and compressive strength for high performance engine applications which use nickel - based valve materials . according to a preferred embodiment , the nickel - rich wear resistant alloy comprises in weight % 0 . 5 to 2 . 5 % c , 0 . 5 to 2 % si , up to 1 % mn , 20 to 30 % cr , 5 to 15 % mo , 5 to 15 % w , 15 to 30 % fe , balance ni . in an embodiment , c is 1 . 5 to 1 . 6 %, si is 1 . 0 to 1 . 1 %, cr is 20 to 25 % and ni is 25 to 50 %. preferably , fe exceeds cr by 0 . 5 % to 5 %, ni exceeds fe by 5 to 15 % and w exceeds mo by up to 2 %. the alloy is a multi - component based ( ni — cr — fe — w — mo ) alloy system containing predominantly eutectic reaction phases , fine intermetallic phases , and precipitation carbides . due to the nature of the eutectic reaction during the solidification process , the alloy can exhibit relatively good castability demonstrated by the following discussion of nine experimental heats . the composition of these nine heats of the alloy along with the as - cast bulk hardness is tabulated in table 1 . in nickel - based valve seat insert alloys containing high chromium , the bulk hardness of the material may increase with an increasing carbon content due to the existence of increasing amounts of primary carbide in the alloy . however , for a multiple component nickel rich alloy , the influence of carbon on the bulk hardness is believed to involve not only chromium , but silicon as well . comments relating to these experimental heats follow : trial 1 ( heat 3e28xa ) showed the highest bulk hardness although its carbon content was much lower than heat 3e30xa ( trial 2 ) which had a relatively low bulk hardness . this relationship between hardness and carbon content is unexpected . notably , trial 2 had lower silicon . trial 3 combines the higher carbon with higher silicon , but notably , chromium was low , again resulting in lower hardness . trial 4 tests the vanadium effect , at lower carbon and lower chromium . by comparing trials 1 , 2 , & amp ; 4 , it appears that vanadium is not a major alloying element that affects the bulk hardness . trial 5 is a repeat of trial 1 , and again , higher hardness was produced . trial 6 is a repeat of trial 5 but without cobalt . again , high hardness is produced which indicates cobalt is not a significant contributor to hardness . trial 7 is a repeat of trial 6 except at higher carbon ( 1 . 90 % c ). high hardness is still produced ; hence , the lower hardness of trial 2 is related to more than carbon alone . trial 8 is a repeat of trial 6 except at lower carbon ( 1 . 16 % c ). now the higher hardness was lost . given that chromium and silicon are higher than in trial 2 , this hardness loss is primarily a carbon effect . trial 9 is a repeat of higher carbon trial 7 but with lower silicon ( 0 . 79 % si ) and lower chromium ( 21 . 70 % cr ). again , the high hardness is not achieved . the overall results of table 2 show a previously unknown relationship between carbon , silicon , and chromium in achieving high hardness . it appears that approx . 1 . 0 % min . silicon and 22 % min . chromium are required to achieve hardness of 45 - 50 rc . the experimentation indicates that both of these elements are preferred in these amounts to enable the alloy to achieve hardness of 45 - 50 rc . the unique relationship of silicon , chromium and carbon provides an unexpected result , particularly the effect of chromium in producing high hardness . given the lack of primary chromium carbide in the alloy , chromium appears to be participating in eutectic reactions resulting in the formation of chromium , nickel and tungsten rich intermetallic phases . regarding microstructure , the alloy preferably consists of a very uniform lamellar type of eutectic solidification structures . within the alloy system , primary dendritic carbides are not observed at carbon levels of 1 . 8 . % c or less . non - dendritic type primary carbides can be observed when carbon content is greater than 1 . 8 wt . %. when carbon content is less than 1 . 5 wt . %, the alloy is comprised of solid solution phase “ islands ” encompassed by eutectic reaction products . vanadium is an mc type carbide former in the alloy system , however , it was found that its effect on bulk hardness of the alloy was relatively small within a range of 0 - 1 . 5 wt . %, hence , vanadium inclusion in the alloy system is optional . cobalt behaves similarly to vanadium and can optionally be included in the alloy in amounts of 0 - 1 . 5 wt . %. the compressive yield strength of a material reflects bulk resistance to permanent deformation . this is a very desired property for a valve seat insert during engine operation because it affects both the ability to retain interference fit and to resist seat surface deformation and resulting wear . the compressive yield strength as a function of temperature for the alloy and other conventional nickel - based alloys can be illustrated in table 3 . the j89 , j96 and j100 alloys referred to in table 3 include the following alloy compositions : j89 has 2 . 440 % c , 0 . 298 % mn , 0 . 525 % si , 34 . 73 % cr , 15 . 21 % w , 4 . 580 % mo , 0 . 090 % fe , 0 . 050 % co , 35 . 93 % ni and 0 . 146 % incidental impurities , j96 has 2 . 510 % c , 0 . 253 % mn , 0 . 700 % si , 28 . 26 % cr , 15 . 34 % w , 0 . 063 % mo , 6 . 050 % fe , 0 . 920 % co , 45 . 64 % ni and 0 . 264 % incidental impurities , and j100 has 2 . 238 % c , 0 . 338 % mn , 0 . 716 % si , 27 . 61 % cr , 15 . 41 % w , 0 . 027 % mo , 5 . 540 % fe , 9 . 735 % co , 38 . 35 % ni and 0 . 034 % incidental impurities . it can be seen that two of the tested materials , j96 and j100 , have significantly lower compressive strength than the j73 alloy , particularly at elevated temperature . this is one of the primary nickel - based material deficiencies that the j73 alloy sought to improve upon . the data show that the j73 alloy has provided a 30 - 40 % improvement in compressive strength at elevated temperatures . j89 is a nickel - based alloy intended to improve strength and wear resistance relative to j96 and j100 ; however , it utilizes a very different elemental approach than the j73 alloy . though the strength increase of the j73 alloy relative to j96 and j100 is less than was achieved with j89 , the major advantage of the j73 alloy relative to j89 is improved machinability . one additional point of interest for the j73 alloy is the slight strengthening which occurs at 1000 ° f . this is also observable in alloys j89 and j96 , but not j100 . it is likely that a secondary precipitation strengthening takes place at 1000 ° f . in these alloys which is a desirable feature for nickel rich valve seat insert alloys to help protect against strength loss at extreme temperature . the secondary precipitation effect is somewhat more pronounced in j96 because it contains a significant amount of a free nickel solid solution phase ( fcc ). six additional heats of the alloy ( trials 10 - 15 ) were made using a sixty - pound furnace to further explore the influence of carbon and silicon on the castability and bulk hardness of the alloy . one design criteria was to create a lower hardness version of the alloy with improved microstructural characteristics . an advantage of lower insert hardness in certain valve train applications is that it will tend to minimize valve wear , possibly at the expense of increased insert wear ; however , the combined wear would be less . as such , for wear problems where valve wear is a high percentage of the total wear , a softer version of the insert alloy would be desirable . for trials 10 - 15 , the iron content was about 20 wt . % and the nickel content was about 34 wt . %. one stack of insert castings was made with each of the six experimental heats . trials 10 - 12 tested different carbon contents whereas trials 13 - 15 tested different silicon contents at a 1 . 1 % carbon target . table 4 summarizes the composition and as - cast hardness results for these experimental heats . pouring temperature of all heats was between 2870 - 2920 ° f . all insert castings filled completely except for trial 15 ( heat 4k19xa ) which experienced incomplete fill in the top mold . the incomplete fill was primarily caused by the significantly low silicon content of 0 . 53 %., therefore , for cast parts , at least 0 . 5 % silicon is believed to be desirable for improving castability . further , a metallographic examination of heat 4k19xa showed the existence of bulk shrinkage at the center of the insert cross - section though it was relatively small in size . comments regarding these trials are as follows : trails 10 and 11 shows that at carbon levels of 0 . 5 % and 0 . 8 %, bulk hardness drops to the mid - 30 &# 39 ; s rc even with target levels of silicon and chromium . this hardness is likely too low to be useful for cast valve seat insert applications . trial 12 demonstrated high hardness again , this time with lower iron and higher nickel than present in the heats for trials 1 - 9 . there was also no vanadium or cobalt in this heat . trials 13 - 15 show that with carbon content at about 1 . 1 wt . %, hardness moved up to the low 40 &# 39 ; s rc . the combination of 1 . 1 % carbon with high silicon of 1 . 5 % ( trial 14 ) produced an increase in hardness to 44 rc ; however , higher hardness is preferably achieved by reversing these percentages ( i . e . 1 . 5 % c , 1 . 1 % si .) as demonstrated in trial 12 which exhibited a hardness of about 50 rc . the overall results of trials 10 - 15 confirm earlier findings regarding a balance between carbon , silicon , and chromium to produce desired hardness . silicon clearly plays a role in determining final hardness , but reaching the high 40 &# 39 ; s hrc is not possible with silicon alone . it appears that carbon and silicon contents must also be controlled to achieve the desired high hardness . silicon is of lesser concern if a low 40 &# 39 ; s hrc version of the alloy is desired . trial 12 represents a preferred combination of carbon , silicon , and chromium , approx . 1 . 5 - 1 . 6 % c , 1 . 0 - 1 . 1 % si , and 23 - 25 % cr , to produce the highest hardness in this alloy system . the elemental chemistry of all 15 experimental heats ( tables 2 & amp ; 4 ) of the alloy were used to carry out a multiple linear regression study to determine the relative mathematical strength of the various alloying elements on the bulk hardness . the results of the linear regression study is presented in equation 1 : when studying the relative effects of the various elements on bulk hrc , the relative effect of each element is the product of the coefficient and the elemental % content . as such , the primary drivers of hardness effect in equation ( 1 ) are carbon and chromium . though chromium has a lower positive coefficient , it &# 39 ; s content is much higher making its overall contribution to the equation significant . fig2 shows the correlation between measured and calculated bulk hardness using equation 1 . a reasonable trend was achieved although only fifteen experimental heats were available for this study . j73 heat 3e28xa ( trial 1 ) was used for determining the thermal expansion coefficient . a comparison of thermal expansion coefficient for materials including the j73 alloy , j89 , j96 , j100 , j3 , and j130 are summarized in table 5 . cobalt - based j3 and iron - based j130 are included for comparative purposes . all the thermal expansion coefficient tests were conducted using 1 inch long and 0 . 5 inch in diameter cylindrical specimens . table 5 shows that the j73 alloy possesses a relatively low thermal expansion coefficient compared with j96 and j100 . the most desirable thermal expansion coefficient for heavy duty valve seat insert applications is one that matches the cylinder head cast iron , typically about 11 . 5 × 10 − 6 mm / mm ° c . cobalt - based alloys and nickel - based alloys often possess a relatively high thermal expansion coefficient and the relatively low thermal expansion coefficient of the j73 alloy is an advantage and is attributable to the alloy system design . another significant result from the thermal expansion testing was that the expansion curve was found to be smooth and gradually increasing throughout the temperature range from 25 - 1000 ° c . this indicates that no phase transformations occurred throughout this temperature range and confirms that heat treatment is not necessary to achieve thermal dimensional stability . based upon study of the fifteen experimental pours , two full size production heats ( 750 lbs .) of the j73 alloy , heats 4g281 ( trial 16 ) and 4g30k ( trial 17 ) were made for production validation of softer and harder versions of the alloy material . trial 16 was targeted to be softer ( low 40 &# 39 ; s rc ) and trial 17 targeted to be harder ( mid - 40 &# 39 ; s rc ). preliminary investigations reveal that the j73 alloy microstructure is generally more desirable at lower carbon content ; hence , a preferred valve seat material would limit carbon to no more than is absolutely necessary to achieve the desired hardness . chemistry and hardness results for trials 16 and 17 are below in table 6 : in studying the microstructure of heat 4g28i , it was found to be similar to the desirable results observed in 3g10xa ( trial 8 , a lower carbon heat ). as such , heat 4g281 was utilized to carry out sem / eds examination of the alloy material . it was revealed that the distribution of non - eutectic reaction phase ( likely a solid solution phase ) was evenly distributed . an sem / eds / wds assisted phase characterization was carried out using a model of hitachi s3600n scanning electron microscope . based upon the information from the microstructural examination some initial conclusions could be reached . a typical sem microstructural image of the alloy ( 4g281 ) at 2000 × magnification is depicted in fig3 . three major matrix phases could be viewed in an sem secondary electron image ( fig3 ). the image was adjusted to show the three major phases by level of brightness ( a = white , b = gray , and c = black ) in fig3 . it was evident that phase b was the abundant solid solution matrix phase . the phase b distributed in and between regions a and c which are multi - phase eutectic reaction products resulting from eutectic / peritectic reactions while the “ island - like ” portions of phase b is likely a primary phase during the alloy casting solidification process . the three phases observed in the alloy appear to be very consistent in composition . phase a has the highest chromium and least tungsten content while phase c has the highest tungsten and least chromium content among the three phases examined . the eds result for the chromium rich phase a is shown in fig4 . to further verify that phase transformations were not occurring below 1200 ° f ., two heats of the alloy were tested for dimensional stability . two 5 piece groups of inserts were tested from each heat . one 5 piece group was as - cast ( no heat treatment ) while the other 5 piece group was heat treated ( stress relieved ) at 1450 ° f . for 4 . 5 hrs . to conduct a dimensional stability test , the outside diameters ( o . d .) of all inserts are measured very accurately at two locations , 90 ° apart . they are then heated at 1200 ° f . for 20 hrs . followed by cooling in still air . the inserts are then cleaned and o . d .&# 39 ; s re - measured at the same locations as the initial measurements . the difference between the initial and final o . d . sizes are then calculated . an insert material is considered dimensionally stable if o . d . size change is less than 0 . 00025 ″ per 1 ″ of insert diameter . the insert diameter tested was 1 . 375 ″ which allows for a maximum change of 0 . 00034 ″ after heating to be considered dimensionally stable . dimensional stability test results are as follows in table 7 : both groups of insert from both heats were very stable and well below the allowable o . d . size change . as such , it was concluded that no significant dimensional changes occur at 1200 ° f . or below regardless of whether the alloy was heat treated or not . high temperature reciprocating wear tests in a plint model te77 tribometer were carried out using reciprocating pin versus plate test . the testing condition included a 20 newton applied load , a 20 hertz reciprocating frequency and a 1 mm stroke length at various test temperatures from ambient to 500 ° c . in the wear tests , the reciprocating pin is made of the insert material while the stationary plate is made of the valve material . valve materials tested include nickel - based inconel 751 , nickel - based nimonic 80a , and cobalt - based stellite 1 . insert materials tested include three heats of the j73 alloy ( heats 3e28xa , 3f20xa , and 3g01xa ), as well as one heat of nickel - based material bx2 ( heat 3110xa ), one heat of j3 ( heat 4c30a ), and one heat of j130 ( heat 4d14n ) for comparative purposes . cobalt - based j3 is currently one of the most successful materials to run with nickel - based and stellite 1 valve materials in the marketplace today . iron - based j130 is also currently successful in exhaust applications . bx2 is a nickel - based material representative of alloys disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 6 , 200 , 688 . the composition of materials used for the wear testing is compiled in table 8 . the wear testing results are summarized in tables 9 and 10 . tests are carried out within both the intake and exhaust insert temperature ranges with results organized accordingly . some conclusions derived from the testing results can be summarized as follows : the j73 alloy exhibits a better wear performance than j3 and bx2 when tested against nickel - based valve material inconel 751 . this enhancement in wear resistance occurred within both the intake and exhaust temperature ranges . the wear resistance of the j73 alloy against stellite 1 within the exhaust temperature range appears to be improved with an increase in bulk hardness . heat 3e28xa ( test 4 ) had the lowest total and pin wear in plint tests . the j73 alloy outperforms bx2 when run against nickel - based valve material nimonic 80a . bx2 shows significantly higher pin wear as well as total wear within both the intake and exhaust temperature ranges . the j73 alloy outperforms both j3 and j130 when tested against cobalt - based valve facing materials stellite 1 within the exhaust insert temperature range . significantly , the exhaust application is where stellite 1 is most commonly used in today &# 39 ; s marketplace . the preferred embodiments are merely illustrative and should not be considered restrictive in any way . the scope of the invention is given by the appended claims , rather than the preceding description , and all variations and equivalents which fall within the range of the claims are intended to be embraced therein .