Effect of Alloying Elements on Thermal Wear of Cast Hot-Forging Die Steels

The effect of main alloying elements on thermal wear of cast hot-forging die steels was studied. The wear mechanism was discussed. The results show that alloying elements have significant influences on the thermal wear of cast hot-forging die steels. The wear rates decrease with an increase in chromium content from 3% to 4% and molybdenum content from 2% to 3%, respectively. With further increase of chromium and molybdenum contents, chromium slightly reduces the wear resistance and molybdenum severely deteriorates the wear resistance with high wear rate. Lower vanadium/carbon ratio （1.5-2.5） leads to a lower wear resistance with higher wear rate. With an increase in vanadium/carbon ratio, the wear resistance of the cast steel substantially increases. When vanadium/carbon ratio is 3, the wear rate reaches the lowest value. The predominant mechanism of thermal wear of cast hot-forging die steels are oxidation wear and fatigue delamination. The Fe2O3 and Fe3O4 or lumps of brittle wear debris are formed on the wear surface.

Numerical Simulation of Coupled Thermo-mechanical Behavior of a Cylinder Billet during Hot-forging Process

A finite volume method is applied to simulate a closed die hot forging process of a cylinder billet. Since variation and distribution of temperature play very important role in hot forging, the code involves a methodology of a coupled system of mechanical and thermal equations. The simulated results are compared with the experimental ones. The distribution of temperature in the billet obtained from the simulation is also discussed.

Determination and Analysis of Hardenability for Hot-Forging Die Steels with Deep-Hardening

ERH end-quenching method was used to determine the hardenability of four kinds hot-forging die steels with deep-hardening and hence the order of their hardenability was given.The tempering hardness of the steels was measured and the tempering resistance was studied.It was approved that ERH method is effective for the determination of hardenability of deep-hardening steel and the beginning of hardness drop in the ERH specimen is caused by bainite occurring.

Research on Thermal Wear of Cast Hot Forging Die Steel Modified by Rare Earths

Thermal wear of cast hot-forging die steel modified by rare earths（RE） was studied and compared with commercially used die steels. The function of RE and the mechanism of thermal wear of cast steel modified by RE were discussed. The results showed that with increasing content of RE, the wear rate of cast steel reduced at first and then increased. By adding 0.05% （mass fraction） RE, the cast hot-forging die steel with optimum thermal wear resistance was obtained, which was better than that of H13 and 3Cr2WSV. The large amount of coarse inclusions, （RE）2O2S, resulted from excessive RE, which obviously deteriorated thermal wear resistance. The mechanism of thermal wear of the modified cast die steel is oxidation wear and oxide fatigue delamination. The wear debris are lumps of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4.

Alloying Design for High Wear-Resistant Cast Hot-Forging Die Steels

The alloying design of cast hot-forging die steels was analyzed. The relationship of the life of cast hot-forging dies with the failure patterns was studied. The thermal wear resistance was believed to be the key property for the alloying design of cast hot-forging die steels. The alloying design parameters were selected and optimized for the cast hot-forging die steel with high wear resistance. The wear resistance of the optimized cast die steel was evaluated in comparison with commercial H13 steels and 3Cr2WSV steel. In the new cast hot-forging die steel, VC is predominant carbide with Cr and Mo as the main solution elements in α-Fe. It is found that the cast die steel has significantly lower wear rate than normal H13 steel and 3Cr2W8V steel, almost the same as that of high purity H13 steel. The high wear resistance of the new cast hot-forging die steel can be attributed to its reasonable alloying design and nonsensibility to the detrimental function of S and P.

Selection of Heat Treatment Process and Wear Mechanism of High Wear Resistant Cast Hot-Forging Die Steel

Dry sliding wear tests of a Cr-Mo-V cast hot-forging die steel was carried out within a load range of 50--300 N at 400℃ by a pin-on-disc high temperature wear machine. The effect of heat treatment process on wear resistance was systematically studied in order to select heat treatment processes of the steel with high wear resistance. The morphology, structure and composition were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy （SEM）, X-ray diffraction （XRD） and energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS） ; wear mechanism was also discussed. Tribo-oxide layer was found to form on worn surfaces to reduce wear under low loads, but appear inside the matrix to increase wear under high loads. The tribo-oxides were mainly consisted of Fe3O4 and Fe2O3, FeO only appeared under a high load. Oxidative mild wear, transition of mild-severe wear in oxidative wear and extrusive wear took turns to operate with increasing the load. The wear resistance strongly depended on the selection of heat treatment processes or microstructures. It was found that bainite presented a better wear resistance than martensite plus bainite duplex structure, martensite structure was of the poorest wear resistance. The wear resistance increased with increasing austenizing temperature in the range of 920 to 1 120 ℃, then decreased at up to 1 220 ℃. As for tempering temperature and microstructure, the wear resistance increased in following order： 700℃ （tempered sorbite）, 200 ℃ （tempered martensite）, 440 to 650 ℃ （tempered troostite）. An appropriate combination of hardness, toughness, microstructural thermal stability was re- quired for a good wear resistance in high-temperature wear. The optimized heat treatment process was suggested for the cast hot-forging steel to be austenized at 1020 to 1 120 ℃, quenched in oil, then tempered at 440 to 650℃ for 2 h.