Search

Precipitation strengthening in titanium-stabilized austenitic stainless steels can improve the hot yield strength, as requested, e.g., for nuclear industry applications. The resulting properties depend mainly on the parameters of the heat treatment and previous forming. The influence of the heat treatment parameters on the development of the microstructure and mechanical properties was determined for steel 08Ch18N10T (GOST). Solution annealing and stabilization with different temperatures and holds were performed on the steel, which was, in delivered condition, stabilized at 720 °C. Heat-treated samples were subjected to static tensile testing at room temperature and at 350 °C, microstructural analysis using light, scanning electron and transmission electron microscopy focused on precipitates, and HV10 hardness testing. The strengthening mechanism and its dependence on the stabilization parameters are described. The results of the experiment show the influence of the state of the input material on the final effect of heat treatment—repeated heat treatment achieved lower-strength characteristics than the initial state, while almost all modes showed above-limit values for the mechanical properties. Stabilization temperatures of 720 to 800 °C were found to be optimal in terms of the achieved hot yield strength. At higher temperatures, slightly lower strengths were achieved, but at significantly shorter dwell times.

Ledeburitic tool steel X210Cr12 was processed by passing through a semi-solid state with subsequent forming on a hydraulic press, thus achieving a fine-grained martensitic matrix, uniformly dispersed fine precipitates, and removal of sharp-edged primary chromium carbides. The hardness value was over 700 HV10. The decomposition of austenite and the promotion of further carbide precipitation were carried out by cryogenic treatment or a combination of cryogenic treatment and tempering. Transmission electron microscopy showed that tempering after cryogenic treatment also led to the precipitation of needle-like M3C carbide, unlike the previous regimes. Furthermore, after the combined treatment, the microstructures showed a significant wear resistance, which was detected both by a waterjet abrasive blast test and a laboratory pin on disk test. Both tests showed a significant increase in wear resistance compared to the initial condition and special high wear resistance steels, such as Hardox 450 and Hardox 600.

Various ways are sought today to increase mechanical properties of steels while maintaining their good strength and ductility. Besides effective alloying strategies, one method involves preserving a certain amount of retained austenite in a martensitic matrix. The steel which was chosen as an experimental material for this investigation contained 2.5% manganese, 2.09% silicon and 1.34% chromium, with additions of nickel and molybdenum. An actual closed-die forged part was made of this steel. This forged part was fitted with thermocouples attached to its surface and placed in its interior and then treated using the Q&P process. Q&P process is characterized by rapid cooling from a soaking temperature to a quenching temperature, which is between the Ms and the Mf, and subsequent reheating to and holding at a partitioning temperature where retained austenite becomes stable. The quenchant was hot water. Cooling took place in a furnace. Heat treatment profiles were constructed from the thermocouple data and the process was then replicated in a thermomechanical simulator. The specimens obtained in this manner were examined using metallographic techniques. The effects of cooling rate on mechanical properties and the amount of retained austenite were assessed. The resultant ultimate strength was around 2100 MPa. Elongation and the amount of retained austenite were 15% and 17%, respectively. Microstructures and mechanical properties of the specimens were then compared to the real-world forged part in order to establish whether physical simulation could be employed for laboratory-based optimization of heat treatment of forgings.

Development of high strength or even ultra-high strength steels is mainly driven by the automotive industry which strives to reduce the weight of individual parts, fuel consumption, and CO2 emissions. Another important factor is to improve passenger safety. In order to achieve the required mechanical properties, it is necessary to use suitable heat treatment in addition to an appropriate alloying strategy. The main problem of these types of treatments is the isothermal holding step. For TRIP steels, the holding temperature lies in the field of bainitic transformation. These isothermal holds are economically demanding to perform in industrial conditions. Therefore new treatments without isothermal holds, which are possible to integrate directly into the production process, are searched. One way to produce high-strength sheet is the press-hardening technology. Physical simulation based on data from a real-world press-hardening process was tested on CMnSi TRIP steel. Mixed martensitic-bainitic structures with ferrite and retained austenite (RA) were obtained, having tensile strengths in excess of 1000 MPa.

Sheet metal forming boundaries are established using the forming limit diagram (FLD). The Nakajima and Marciniak tests, which are based on stretching a material using a punch, are the most commonly used methods for determining the FLD or fracture forming limit diagram (FFLD). The results are usually evaluated by calculating local strain, strain rates, specimen thickness reduction or fracture strain. When the amount of experimental material is insufficient, miniaturization of the testing specimens may be a solution. However, the interchangeability of the results for standard and miniaturized specimens has not been proven yet. In this study, the Nakajima tests were performed using standard and sub-sized specimens made of manganese–boron steel 22MnB5, commonly used in the automotive industry. Afterwards, four FLD/FFLD evaluation methods were applied and compared. The miniaturized specimens yielded higher strain values, which was explained by the varied ratio of material thickness/punch diameter and different bending conditions. The highest compliance of the results was recorded for the standard and miniaturized FFLD.

Two oxide precipitation hardened (OPH) Fe-Al-O-based steels were prepared by mechanical alloying. In addition to the variant using yttria nano-precipitates to improve the mechanical properties, a variant using only alumina precipitates for strengthening was also prepared. Therefore, a more economically acceptable variant of these steels was developed. Hot consolidation is a significant production step for achieving the required mechanical properties. Hot consolidation was performed by either hot rolling or forging. The heat treatment was subsequently performed on both variants (0.85Fe–0.11Al–0.03Y2O3–0.01Y and 0.87Fe–0.11Al–0.02O2) of the alloys to support secondary recrystallization. The paper describes the influence of the consolidation method on grain size, material recrystallization, and mechanical properties. The difference in the consolidation method was reflected in the grain size after the heat treatment, where the material consolidated by hot rolling reached a grain size of almost 200 μm, while after forging the maximum grain size was around 30 μm. A higher ultimate tensile strength was achieved with forged states, both with and without the heat treatment.

The requirements placed on closed-die-forged parts of advanced steels have been increasing recently. Such forgings demand an innovative approach to both design and heat treatment. It is important to obtain high strength and sufficient ductility in closed-die forgings. High strength, mostly associated with martensitic microstructure, is often to the detriment of ductility. Ductility can be improved by incorporating a certain volume fraction of retained austenite in the resulting microstructure. Among heat treatment processes capable of producing martensite and retained austenite, there is the Q&P process (Quenching and Partitioning). This process is characterized by rapid cooling from the soaking temperature to the quenching temperature, which is between Ms and Mf, and subsequent reheating and holding at the partitioning temperature. Thus, strength levels of more than 2000 MPa combined with more than 10% elongation can be obtained. This experimental programme involved steels with 2.5% manganese. Forgings of these steels were heat treated using an innovative process in order to obtain an ultimate strength of more than 2000 MPa combined with sufficient elongation. Thanks to a higher manganese level, the Mf was depressed as low as 78°C, and therefore quenching was carried out not only in air but also in boiling water. Holding at the partitioning temperature of 180°C, when carbon migrates from super-saturated martensite to retained austenite, took place in a furnace. The effects of heat treatment parameters on the resulting mechanical properties and microstructure evolution in various locations of the forging were studied.

One of today’s advanced heat treatment routes for high-strength steels is the Q&P process which delivers high ultimate strengths combined with good ductility. The resulting microstructure is a combination of martensite and small fractions of bainite and retained austenite. Retained austenite has the form of thin needles adjacent to martensite laths. The use of this process in industrial practice is complicated by the need for holding at the partitioning temperature when retained austenite becomes stabilized by carbon migration from super-saturated martensite. Engineers therefore seek process routes in which interrupting the cooling process at a particular temperature and holding at that temperature do not pose technological problems. One of the available options is press hardening, often incorporated in the treatment of car body parts. 42SiCr steel, which is alloyed with manganese, silicon and chromium, was Q&P-processed using experimental sequences with various quenching and partitioning temperatures. The soaking time and temperature and cooling rates were identical to the parameters used in real-world processes. Correctly-chosen parameters led to martensitic-bainitic microstructures with a portion of retained austenite, ultimate strength of around 2000 MPa and A20 elongation of more than 10%.

Two high strength low alloyed steels with 0.4%C, 0.6%Mn, 2%Si and either 1.3% of chromium or without chromium were used in this work to evaluate the effect of chromium on the final microstructure obtained by thermo-mechanical processing. Various heating temperatures, cooling rates and bainitic hold temperatures were tested. High strengths around 1700 MPa were achieved for the chromium alloyed steel, however total elongation reached only 9%. Chromium-free steel turned out to be better suited for TRIP (transformation induced plasticity) processing. The relatively high strengths around 900 MPa were in this case accompanied by very high total elongations exceeding 30%. The final microstructure of chromium-free steel was also more typical for TRIP steel, as it consisted mainly of the mixture of bainite and polygonal ferrite.

Semi-solid processing is an unconventional technique, which can be used to produce intricate components by forming and also to remove the sharp-edged carbides. However, the resulting microstructure after semi-solid processing consists of polyhedral austenite grains and lamellar ledeburite network. The network can be fragmented by applying an appropriate deformation sequence during cooling. X210Cr12 tool was experimentally processed by a combination of semi-solid processing and subsequent thermomechanical treatment. The heating temperature was varied from 1200°C to 1280°C. The obtained microstructures consisted of recrystallized grains of the M-A constituent and fine chromium precipitates without sharp-edged carbides with hardness higher than 800 HV10.

Fe−Al−O-based materials are currently undergoing a great deal of development because of their many special properties. However, lack of strength at high temperatures, limited ductility at ambient temperatures and corrosion resistance have hindered a wider application of these materials. Recently, a new Fe−Al-based oxide precipitation hardened (OPH) steel was developed by the authors to improve the mechanical properties and oxidation resistance. The new OPH alloys are produced by dissolving a specific amount of oxygen in the matrix during mechanical alloying followed by precipitation of fine dispersion of aluminum or yttrium oxides during hot consolidation. A series of tests was performed to evaluate the thermomechanical properties and corrosion resistance in a 3.5% NaCl solution. The results show improved corrosion resistance, as well as mechanical properties, while the production costs of this material are lower than for traditional materials.

This paper examines how the initial austenite grain size in quench and partitioning (Q-P) processes influences the final mechanical properties of Q-P steels. Differences in austenite grain size distribution may result, for example, from uneven heating rates of semi-finished products prior to a forging process. In order to quantify this influence, a carefully defined heat treatment of a cylindrical specimen made of the Q-P-capable 42SiCr steel was performed in a dilatometer. Different austenite grain sizes were adjusted by a pre-treatment before the actual Q-P process. The resulting mechanical properties were determined using the upsetting test and the corresponding microstructures were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These investigations show that a larger austenite grain size prior to Q-P processing leads to a slightly lower strength as well as to a coarser martensitic microstructure in the Q-P-treated material.

Existing oxide dispersion strengthened (ODS) alloys are, besides Ni-based superalloy single crystals, the most creep-resistant materials. The creep resistance of the ODS alloys may, moreover, be significantly improved thanks to increasing the volume fraction of the nano oxides by more than one order of magnitude so that the oxides play a decisive role in strengthening. The present experimental study deals with two systems of such a high-volume fraction of nano oxides, namely, the Fe-11Al-1O and Fe-17Cr-7Al-4Y2O3 systems prepared by mechanical alloying and hot rolling leading to a rather stable fine-grained microstructure. This microstructure undergoes static recrystallization at high temperatures. The kinetics of static recrystallization and coarsening of nano oxides in recrystallized grains is determined for both systems. The difference in kinetics of coarsening of Al-based and Y-based oxides in the Fe-11Al-1O and Fe-17Cr-7Al-4Y2O3 systems is expressive and predetermines the Fe-17Cr-7Al-4Y2O3 system or similar ones to become the new leading system among creep- and oxidation-resistant materials for applications up to 1200 °C.

Although conventional tool steels have been heat treated on a routine basis for decades, the search continues for new ways to eliminate their troublesome sharp-edged primary chromium carbides, which impair toughness. One of the available techniques is semi-solid processing, which involves partial melting of the workpiece. The structure after semi-solid processing consisted of a austenite and carbide-austenite network. The network can be broken up and its fragments distributed uniformly by subsequent forming with appropriate parameters. In this experimental study, X210Cr12 tool steel was heated to a semi-solid state, and after cooling to a solid state, worked in a hydraulic press. Suitable soaking temperatures were sought within an interval between 1200 °C and 1280 °C. The workpieces were quenched from the forming temperature in water or oil. In order to improve formability and reduce hardness, tempering was tested as well. Additional experimental regimes included conventional quenching and tempering. Once the appropriate parameters were chosen, the elimination of primary chromium carbides was successful. The resultant microstructures were fine and consisted of M-A constituent with a size of approximately 1 μm, and very fine Fe3C and Cr7C3 carbides. The hardness was in excess of 800 HV10. They were examined using optical and scanning electron microscopes. The carbides were characterized on transparent foils in a transmission electron microscope. Mechanical characteristics were determined in micro-tensile tests.