Controlling the Thermal Stability of a Bainitic Structure by Alloy Design and Isothermal Heat Treatment.

The aim of this work was to develop a novel bainitic steel that will be specifically dedicated to achieving a high degree of refinement (nano- or submicron scale) along with increased thermal stability of the structure at elevated temperatures. The material was characterized by improved in-use properties, expressed as the thermal stability of the structure, compared to nanocrystalline bainitic steels with a limited fraction of carbide precipitations. Assumed criteria for the expected low martensite start temperature, bainitic hardenability level, and thermal stability are specified. The steel design process and complete characteristics of the novel steel including continuous cooling transformation and time-temperature-transformation diagrams based on dilatometry are presented. Moreover, the influence of bainite transformation temperature on the degree of structure refinement and dimensions of austenite blocks was also determined. It was assessed whether, in medium-carbon steels, it is possible to achieve a nanoscale bainitic structure. Finally, the effectiveness of the applied strategy for enhancing thermal stability at elevated temperatures was analyzed.

Physical and Numerical Simulations of Closed Die Hot Forging and Heat Treatment of Forged Parts.

The paper describes physical and numerical simulations of a manufacturing process composed of hot forging and controlled cooling, which replace the conventional heat treatment technology. The objective was to investigate possibilities and limitations of the heat treatment with the use of the heat of forging. Three steels used to manufacture automotive parts were investigated. Experiments were composed of two sets of tests. The first were isothermal (TTT) and constant cooling rate (CCT) dilatometric tests, which supplied data for the identification of the numerical phase transformation model. The second was a physical simulation of the sequence forging-cooling on Gleeble 3800, which supplied data for the validation of the models. In the numerical part, a finite element (FE) thermal-mechanical code was combined with metallurgical models describing recrystallization and grain growth during forging and phase transformations during cooling. The FE model predicted distributions of the temperature and the austenite grain size in the forging, which were input data for further simulations of phase transformations during cooling. A modified JMAK equation was used to calculate the kinetics of transformation and volume fraction of microstructural constituents after cooling. Since the dilatometric tests were performed for various austenitization temperatures before cooling, it was possible to include austenite grain size as a variable in the model. An inverse algorithm developed by the authors was applied in the identification procedure. The model with optimal material parameters was used for simulations of hot forging and controlled cooling in one of the forging shops in Poland. Distributions of microstructural constituents in the forging after cooling were calculated. As a consequence, various cooling sequences during heat treatment could be analyzed and compared.

Dilatometric Study of Phase Transformations in 5 Mn Steel Subjected to Different Heat Treatments.

The work presents results of phase transformation kinetics of hot-rolled 5% Mn steel subjected to different heat treatments. Three different schedules were introduced: isothermal holding in a bainite region, coiling simulation and intercritical annealing. The evolution of microstructure components was investigated using dilatometric and metallographic analyses. According to obtained results, the medium-Mn steel exhibits high resistance for γ/α transformation during the bainite transformation and coiling simulation (upon cooling from the austenite region). During 5 h isothermal holding, no bainite and/or ferrite formation was detected. This results in the formation of martensite upon cooling to room temperature. Differently, when the steel was subjected to the intercritical annealing at 720 and 700 °C (upon heating from room temperature), a final microstructure consisted of ferrite, martensite and retained austenite. At 700 °C, no fresh martensite formation was detected upon cooling to room temperature. This means that the austenite was enriched in carbon during the intercritical annealing step enough to keep its thermal stability.