Microstructure of Surface Layer Formed at Low Temperature and High Carbon Concentration Carburizing with Rare Earth Element

A suitable carburized microstructure with fine granular dispersed carbides in hypereutectoid zone,ultra fine martensite in matrix and recrystallized austenite to be refined to the grain size of 12～14 has been obtained by a new process,which is a high carbon concentration carburizing with rare earth element at low temperature(860～880℃)in a discontinuous gas carburization furnace.There was not much difference for the microstructure in eutectic zone between this and conventional process.Forming mechanism of granular carbides has been also studied in this paper.

Study on Carburizing Kinetics of Low-carbon Steel at High-temperature and Short-term

In this paper, the carburizing kinetics of low-carbon steel at high-temperature and short-term in liquid cast-iron were studied by metallographic microscope, chemical analysis and so on, and the microstructure of carburized layer was also analyzed. The results show that the carburizing rate of low-carbon steel at high-temperature and short-term is so fast, and the microstructure of carburized layer possess higher carbon content, and cementite, pearlite and ferrite exist in carburized layer structure simultaneously. Besides, the kinetic equations of permeating layer forming have been presented, and the carburizing mechanism was preliminary discussed also.

Effect of Rare Earths on Diffusion Coefficient and Transfer Coefficient of Carbon during Carburizing

The diffusion coefficient of carbon in surface layer of steel-20 rare earth carburixed at 880 degreesC and 900 degreesC for 8 h was calculated by substituting the measured layer depths into the diffusion equation. The mathematical model of the transfer coefficient of carbon was deduced based on the kinetics of weight gain during gas carburizing. The calculated results show that the main reason why the gas carburizing process is accelerated is due to the obvious increase in the diffusion coefficient and transfer coefficient of carbon resulted from the addition of RE.

Observation and Analysis of the Microstructure in CarburizedSurface Layer of Steel 20Cr2Ni4A Treated with ConventionalAnd Rare Earth Carburizing Processes

Observation and analysis with TEM show that the fine granular dispersed carbides in hypereutectoid zone of steel 20Cr2Ni4A are distributed in the matrix of large number of lath martensite after rare earth carburizing. But while treating by conventional carburization and double quench hardening the retained carbides are finer and more dispersive, and its matrix is perfectly twin martersite. The different micrcotructures of matrix around carbide are formed with different kinds of carburization processes.

Double Glow Plasma Hydrogen-free Carburizing on Commercial Purity Titanium

A carburized layer with special physical and chemical properties was formed on the surface of commercial purity titanium by a double glow plasma hydrogen-free carburizing technique,High-purity netlike solid graphite was used as a raw material and commercial purity titanium was used as the substrate material.Argon gas was used as the working gas.The carburized layer can be obviously observed under a microscope.X-ray diffraction indicates that TiC phase with higher hardness and dissociate state carbon phase was formed in the carburized layer.The glow discharge spectrum（GDS） analysis shows that the carbon concentration distributes grodiently along the depth of carburized layer.The surface hardness of the substrate increases obviously.The hardness distributes gradiently from the surface to inner of carburized layer.The friction coefficient reduces by more than 1/2,the ratio wear rate decreases by above three orders of magnitude.The wear resistance of the substrate material is improved-consumedly.

Thermodynamic Simulation on the Change in Phase for Carburizing Process

The type of technology used to strengthen the surface structure of machine parts,typically by carbon-permeation,has made a great contribution to the mechanical engineering industry because of its outstanding advantages in corrosion resistance and enhanced mechanical and physical properties.Furthermore,carbon permeation is considered as an optimal method of heat treatment through the diffusion of carbon atoms into the surface of alloy steel.This study presented research results on the thermodynamic calculation and simulation of the carbon permeability process.Applying Fick’s law,the paper calculated the distribution of carbon concentration in the alloy steel after it is absorbed from the surface into the internal of the sample.Using the SYSWELD software,an analysis was performed on the carbon permeability process to determine the distribution of carbon concentrations in 20CrMo steel that was then followed by a detailed analysis of the microstructure of the sample post the carburizing process.According to the calculation results,the surface carbon content was 0.9%and steadily decreased into the core.After 3 hours,the depth of the absorbent layer was measured at 0.5 mm for both the cylindrical and cubic samples.By analyzing the phase,the distribution of martensite phases such as ferrite/pearlite and residual austenite was also determined after the carburizing process.

Layer Structure Analysis of Low-Carbon Steel Containing Rare Earth by High-Temperature Carburizing of Liquid Cast-Iron

The layer structure of low-carbon steel containing RE by high-temperature (T>1200 ℃) carburizing of liquid cast-iron was studied and the diffusion activation energy of carbon was calculated by metallographic microscpe, chemical analysis etc. The result shows that the technology of carburizing in liquid cast-iron can expedite caburization distinctly and changes the carburizing layer structure. The carburizing rate is 60～80 times of that of the traditional technology, and there is about 43% decrease in the activation energy compared with gas-carburization. In outer structure layer, cementite is formed simultaneously both on the crystal boundary reticularly and inside the crystal grains stripedly. In inner carburizing layer, there is undissolved blocky ferrite in reticular cementite. Besides, rare earth element can expedite carburization process.

Study on Carburizing and Temperature Rising of the Semi-Steel Melt with Plasma Heating

Experiments were carried out on carburizing and temperature rising of the semi steel melt in a plasma induction furnace.Influence of many factors, such as power supply mode,position of the plasma torch and bottom blown gas stirring,on heating efficiency and melt temperature distribution was studied. Melt temperature could be effectively controlled by plasma heating,and carbon content of semi steel melt increased from 1.92 % to 4.58 %, and the utilization rate of carbon reached up to 61.57 % during carburizing of the melt.

Development of microalloyed steels for high temperature carburizing

The potential for use of microalloy additions to suppress abnormal austenite grain growth and produce steels with enhanced bending fatigue resistance after high temperature vacuum carburizing was investigated in a series of Ti-modified SAE 8620 steels with w(niobium) additions up to 0.1%.Results are considered from a series of papers at the Advanced Steel Processing and Products Research Center on the effects of Nb content,heating rate, rolling history,and processing temperature on the evolution of austenite grain structures in carburizing steels. Emphasis is placed on understanding the effects of alloying and processing on each stage in the annealing process including the as received laboratory rolled conditions,during the onset of carburizing after annealing at different heating rates,and after annealing for various times at carburizing temperatures up to 1 100℃.Heating rate to the carburizing temperature was shown to be an influential variable and suppression of abnormal grain growth was dependent on the development of a critical distribution of fine NbC precipitates,stable at the austenitizing temperature.The importance to industrial carburizing practice of heating rate effects on precipitates and austenite grain size evolution are discussed and correlated to selected data on fatigue performance.

Heat Treatment Simulation for Low Pressure Hyper Carburizing Process

Carburizing heat treatment is well used to increase the strength of gears and automobile drivetrain parts.When very high contact fatigue strength is required,hyper carburizing or carbonitriding is well used to improve the surface hardness and tempering softening resistance.Over saturate carburizing as called hyper carburizing can be used in a conventional ordinary carburizing furnace and investment of new gas supply equipment is unnecessary,while there are problems such as controlling precipitation of cementite and securing hardenability of the surface,etc.Also,problems such as secondary precipitation to control the material micro structure,its quality prediction method becomes important.In recent years the low pressure carburizing method has been widely used and the possibility of making hyper carburizing in low cost has been expanding.However,when hyper carburizing is performed by low pressure carburizng,reticulated cementite occurs at the edge of the part,there is a problem such as local increase of carbon concentration distribution and toughness.In this study,we tried to formulate precipitation when super carburizing was performed on steel parts using a low pressure carburizing furnace,formulated the surface hardness distribution,and tried to calculate the hardness and cementite precipitation size distribution.CALPHAD method is used to obtain the physical property values,graphite of an intermediate product was precipitated from the low pressure carburizing atmosphere on the surface layer,and it was assumed that carburization occurred therefrom.Estimating supersaturated carbon precipitates as cementite,the growth amount of the precipitate is calculated.The deposition rate was estimated by comparing the actual measurement with the calculated value.Estimating hardness is determined by the sum of the hardness of the precipitate and the hardness of the parent phase part,the hardness distribution was verified.As a result,the hardness distribution at the time of high concentration carburization in the test piece shape was predicted.The method was also applied to the actual part shape,and the quality difference between the edge part and the flat part of the gear and the heat treatment deformation quantity were estimated.

Numerical Simulation on Carburizing and Quenching of Gear Ring

The carburizing process of the gear ring was simulated by taking into account the practical carburizing and quenching techniques of the gear ring and by solving the diffusion equation. The carbon content distribution in the carburized layer was obtained. Based on the results, the quenching process of the gear ring was then simulated using the metallic thermodynamics and FEM： it was found that the carburization remarkably affects the quenching process. Microstructures and stress distributions of the gear ring in the quenching process were simulated, and the results are confirmed by experiments.

Accelerating Effect of Rare Earth in Steel on Its Surface-Carburizing Process

The carburization of steel type 20 with and without RE addition was investigated. The results show that RE in steel can accelerate carburizing process at 850 and 910 ℃. The optimum RE content in steel is about 0 032%. The mechanism of enhancing effect of RE on carburizing process was discussed.

Research on Heredity of Coarse Ferrite Grains

The changes in austenite grain size of the specimens with coarse ferrite grains under different heat treatment process were investigated.The focus was on studying the effect of annealing on refining coarse ferrite grains,as well as the influence of the ferrite grain size on the main technical indicators of gas carburizing.The results show that coarse ferrite grains may not necessarily cause the coarse austenite grains,but may result in mixed austenite grains.After annealing treatment,the coarse ferrite grains can be significantly refined and homogenized.Moreover,the coarse ferrite grains have no significant effects on hardnessand intergranular oxidationof gas carburizing.

Optimizing the low-pressure carburizing process of 16Cr3NiWMoVNbE gear steel

Compared with the traditional atm ospheric carburization, low-pressure carburization has the benefits of producing no surface oxidation and leaving fine, uniformly dispersed carbides in the carburized layer. However, the process param eters for low-pressure carburization of 16Cr3NiWMoVNbE steel have yet to be optimized. Thus, we use the saturation-value method to optimize these parameters for aviation-gear materials. Toward this end, the m icrostructure and properties of 16Cr3NiWMoVNbE steel after different carburization processes are studied by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transm ission electron microscopy, and electron probe microanalysis. Considering the saturated austenite carbon concentration, we propose a model of carbon flux and an alloy coefficient for low -pressure carburization to reduce the carbon concentration in austenite and avoid the surface carbide network. At the early stage of carburization (30 s), the gas-solid interface has a higher concentration gradient. The averaging method is not ideal in practical applications, but the carbon flux measured by using the segm ented average m ethod is 2.5 times that measured by the overall average method, which is ideal in practical applications. The corresponding carburization tim e is reduced by 60%. By using the integral average method, the actual carburization time increases, which leads to the rapid form ation of carbide on the surface and affects the entire carburization process. Nb and Wcombine with C to form carbides, which hinders carbon diffusion and consumes carbon, resulting in a sharp decrease in the rate of C diffusion in austenite (the diffusion rate is reduced by 52% for 16Cr3NiWMoVNbE steel). By changing the diffusion coefficient model and comparing the hardness gradient of different processes, the depth of the actual layer is found to be very similar to the design depth.

Metallurgical concepts for optimized processing and properties of carburizing steel

Carburized steel grades are widely used in applications where high surface near hardness is required in combination with good core toughness as well as high strength and fatigue resistance. The process of carburizing lower to medium carbon containing steel can generally provide this combination of properties and has been prac- ticed for several decades. Such steel is essential in the vehicle power-train, machines and power generation equipment. However, the increasing performance demands by such applications as well as economical considerations forced steel producers to develop better alloys and fabri- cators to design more efficient manufacturing processes. The present paper describes recent concepts for alloy design optimization of carburizing steel and demonstrates the forthcoming beneficial consequences with regard to manufacturing processes and final properties.

Rolling Contact Fatigue Properties of SAE 8620 Steel after Case Carburizing

Rolling contact fatigue（RCF）properties of SAE 8620 steel after case carburizing have been investigated under two contact stresses of 4.0and 5.5GPa.Results show that the RCF life ranges from 2.5×10^6 to 3×10^7 cycles under the contact stress of 5.5GPa,while it can be more than 1×10^8 cycles under the contact stress of 4.0GPa.The rated fatigue life L_（10）（lives with the 10%failure）is also drastically shortened from 9.8×10^6 to 5.4×10^5 cycles when the contact stress is increased from 4.0to 5.5GPa.Theoretical calculations and fractographs show that the maximum shear stress and the contact area increase with increasing the contact stress,making RCF tend to occur earlier.

Ultrahigh hardness of carbon steel surface realized by novel solid carburizing with rapid diffusion of carbon nanostructures

In this study, a novel rapid solid carburizing process with a large diffusion depth using nano-diamonds（NDs） was conducted for low carbon steel. Changes of annealed NDs were obtained by Raman spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy（TEM）, and the results suggested that the NDs experience a stripping process before a special solid-reaction with surface iron atoms from steel substrate. Onionlike carbon（OLC） derived from the annealed NDs provided broken graphitic ribbons as carbon sources that accelerated the rate of adsorption and diffusion. Examination of the surface layer at equilibrium using TEM and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS） also revealed the special state of carbon, and an ultrafine mixed phase microstructure was obtained by rapid solid-phase transformation. As a result, a surface hardened layer with ultrahigh hardness and a smooth transition region were realized. We believe that these kinds of diamond or graphitic structures with high activity states have an important influence not only on adsorption and diffusion but also on this special solid-phase transformation.

INTERGRANULAR EMBRITTLEMENT IN PLASMA CARBURIZED LAYER

This paper deals with the cause of intergranular fracture occurred in the retained austenitic region in plasma carburized layer.The results show that the presence of retained austenite, which has a good effect on the impact toughness,has no relation to this embrittlement.Analy- sis by Auger electron spectroscopy shows that the impurities S and P segregate at the grain boundaries is the main reason of the intergranular embrittlement in carburized layer. However,the segregation of P and S can be removed by reheating and quenching treatment.

Effect of solid carburization on surface microstructure and hardness of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and(TiB+La_2O_3)/Ti-6Al-4V composite

Solid carburization was employed to improve the hardness of Ti-6Al-4V alloy and （TiB＋La2O3）/Ti composite. The samples wrapped in graphite powder were placed in sealed quartz tubes, followed by solid carburization at 1227 K for 24 h. Microstructure and phase analysis indicated that TiC reinforcements and Ti-C solid solutions were introduced after solid carburization. Moreover, the volume fraction of equiaxedα-Ti phase in diffusion layer decreased obviously with increasing sample depth. Hardness testing results indicated that both the carburized surfaces performed significant improvement of about 100% in micro-hardness compared with untreated materials. The variation of carbon contents with increasing sample depth resulted in a hardened layer of 300 μm in the carburized samples. Meanwhile, slight influence on the internal microstructure and hardness indicated that solid carburization was an effective method in strengthening the surface of titanium alloy and titanium matrix composite.

INDUCTION PLASMA REACTIVE DEPOSITION OF TUNGSTEN CARBIDE FROM TUNGSTEN METAL POWDER

Experimental results on the primary carburization reaction between the tungsten powder and methane in the induction plasma, and the secondary carburization of the deposit on substrate at high temperature are reported. Optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were used to examine the microstructures of starting tungsten powder, carburized powder, and deposit. X-ray diffraction analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis and microhardness measurement were used to characterize the structures and properties of the powder and the deposit. It is found that the primary carburization reaction in the induction plasma starts from the surface of tungsten particles when the particles are melted. Tungsten particles are partially carburized inside the reactive plasma. Complete carburization is achieved through the secondary carburization reaction of the deposit on substrate at high temperature.