Investigation into microstructure of spray formed V4 cold working mould steel and its roiling and annealing

The material selected for this work was the spray formed Vanadis4 high alloy cold working mould steel （abbreviated to V4 steel）. Its microstructure, hot rolling process, and annealing treatment have been investigated. Observed from the optical and electron microscopes, the as-sprayed V4 steel had the finer microstructure of uniform and equiaxial grains ,while after hot rolling for densification and spheroidized annealing, the V4 steel obtained an excellent spheroidized structure that is favorable to subsequent quenching and tempering treatment. The spheroidized structure and level of annealed hardness of the V4 steel are almost the same as expensive imported powder metallurgy the V4 steel. It is difficult to produce V4 steel with the conventional ingot metallurgical technique, so the multi-step and high-cost powder metallurgy method is generally used at present. Compared to the powder metallurgy technique, using the spray forming technique to produce the V4 steel has obvious advantages and potential market competitiveness in reducing production costs, simplifying working process, and shortening the production cycle.

FEM simulation and experimental verification of temperature field and phase transformation in deep cryogenic treatment

Combining with the low temperature material properties and the boiling heat transfer coefficient of specimen immersed in the liquid nitrogen, a numerical model based on metallo-thermo-mechanical couple theory was established to reproduce the deep cryogenic treatment （DCT） process of a newly developed cold work die steel Cr8Mo2SiV （SDC99）. Moreover, an experimental setup for rapid temperature measurement was designed to validate the simulation results. The investigation suggests that the differences in temperature and cooling rate between the surface and core of specimen are very significant. However, it should be emphasized that the acute temperature and cooling rate changes during DCT are mainly concentrated on the specimen surface region about 1/3 of the sample thickness. Subjected to DCT, the retained austenite of quenched specimen continues to transform to martensite and finally its phase volume fraction reduces to 2.3%. The predicted results are coincident well with the experimental data, which demonstrates that the numerical model employed in this study can accurately capture the variation characteristics of temperature and microstructure fields during DCT and provide a theoretical guidance for making the reasonable DCT procedure.

Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructure of Modified Cast AISI D3 Cold Work Tool Steel

The effects of heat treatment on the microstructure of modified cast high chromium high carbon AISI D3 steel were studied. The modified AISI D3 steel was developed by replacing part of chromium with niobium and titanium, in which chromium carbide was partially replaced with MC carbides. The cast samples produced by investment casting were heat treated under different conditions. The microstructures of the samples were studied by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope equipped with EDS analyzer. To determine the optimized homogenizing process, the effects of homogenizing treatment on the microstructure and the morphology of carbides were also studied. The results show that the MC carbides are not changed in shape and amounts during high temperature homogenizing, whereas the M3C carbides are reduced in amount and become semiglobular in shape, and the homogeneity of microstructure is improved.

Effect of Cryogenic Treatment on Properties of Cr8-Type Cold Work Die Steel

The effect of cryogenic treatment on the properties of Cr8-type cold work die steel was investigated. The results show that cryogenic treatment increases hardness by decreasing retained austenite, but the degree depends on the austenitizing temperature. When quenching at lower austenitizing temperature, the steel can obtain higher tough- ness by cryogenic treatment substituting conventional treatment process. Cryogenic time has little effect on cryogenic treatment. Conversely, cryogenic temperature has a great effect on cryogenic treatment and the effect of cryogenic treatment is more obvious with decreasing cryogenic temperature. In addition, deep cryogenic treatment improves the wear resistance by precipitating more homogeneous specific carbides.

Phase Transformation of a Cold Work Tool Steel during Tempering

The hardness and microstructure evolution of a 8% Cr cold work tool steel during tempering for 40 h were investigated. Transmission electron microscope examinations showed that M_3C carbides precipitated from supersaturated martensite after tempering at 350 ℃. When the tempering temperature was higher than 520 ℃,the M_（23）C_6 carbides precipitated to substitute for M_3C carbides. After ageing at the temperature of 520 ℃ for 40 h,it was observed that very fine and dense secondary Mo_2C precipitates were precipitated. Thus,it can be concluded that the early stage of Mo_2C-carbide precipitation is like to be Gunier-Preston（ G-P） zone formed by [Mo-C] segregation group which is responsible for the secondary hardening peak at 520 ℃. Overageing at 700 ℃ resulted in recovery of martensitic microstructure and precipitation of M_（23）C_6 carbides.When ageing at 700 ℃ for more than 20 h,recrystallization occurred,which resulted in a change of the matrix morphology from martensitic plates to equiaxed ferrite. It was noticed that the size of recrystallized grain / subgrain was very fine,which was attributed to the pinning effect of M_（23）C_6 precipitates.