Calculation and Analysis of Valence Electron Structure of Mo_2C and V_4C_3 in Hot Working Die Steel

Taking the hot working die steel （HWDS） 4Cr3Mo2NbVNi as an example, the phase electron structures （PES） and the biphase interface electron structures （BIES） of Mo2C and V4 C3 , which are two kinds of important carbides precipitated during tempering in steel were calculated, on the basis of the empirical electron theory of solids and molecules and the improved TFD theory. The influence of Mo2 C and V4 C3 on the mechanical properties of HWDS has been analyzed at electron structure level, and the fundamental reason that the characteristic of the PES and the BIES of carbides decides the behavior of them has been revealed.

CYCLIC SOFTENING IN HOT-WORKING DIE STEELS DURING LOW-CYCLE FATIGUE

The characteristics and microstructural changes of cyclic softening in hot-working die steels 5CrNiMo and 5Cr2NiMoVSi were studied under strain controlled low-cycle fatigue.The re- sults show that the cyclic softening is featured in both steels hardened in different conditions under the strain controlled amplitude range of Δε_t/2=0.6-1.8×10^(-2).The softening effect mainly occurs in some initial cycles and the stress amplitude varies slightly in the sequential cycles,i.e.the softening effect is minified.No obvious stress saturation phenomenon was ob- served during the whole cyclic deformation.The TEM analysis shows that the cyclic softening is related to heterogenity of plastic deformation.The softening of the tested steels is caused by the formation of the dislocation cell structure with low density and low internal stress,and by the fragmentation and redissolution of fine carbides into matrix.

APPLICATION OF RARE EARTH IN SURFACE HEAT TREATMENT OF HOT-WORKING DIE STEELS

This paper studies a compound treatment. i. e. liquid S , N,C co-diffusing with rare earth (RE) and then oxidization , for hot-working die steels , and the effect of RE on thermal fatigue behavior of the diffused layer. XRD and SEM energy spectrum prove that trace RE element actually penetrates into the surface layer of steels. The result shows that RE can reduce the gradient of change of hardness in diffused layer, improve the morphology and distribution of compounds , and reduce the degree of surface alligator crack for thermal fatigue. The behavior of thermal fatigue of hot-working die steels is raised by 70% or so after the application of RE. The effect of RE is analysed according to the theory.

Study on Microstructures and Properties of Several Kinds of Hot Working Die Steel

This paper deals with the microstructures and properties of AISI H13(4Cr5MoSiV1), UHB QRO 90M and 4Cr3Mo2V steels, and then discusses the means of improving the service life of hot working die. The results show that increase of quenching temperature improves the resistance to thermal fatigue and tempering stability. Fine heat treatment process can produce fine dispersed carbides. Shot peening and cryogenic treatments can raise the compressive stresses at surface as well as the resistance of tempering greatly. Under the condition that a compound layer is not engendered, ionnitriding process can restrain the initiation and propagation of fatigue crack and enhance the resistance to thermal fatigue. Vapor surface treatment provides the ways to protect and lubricate the die by the porous films of Fe 3O 4, which are formed on the die surface. Electrical spark surface strengthening process forms compounds with high melting point and high stability on the die surface and thus enhances the properties of die's resistance to oxidation efficaciously. Besides, QRO 90M and 4Cr3Mo2V steels, because of the superiority in designing of composition, have better tempering stability and softening resistance than 4Cr5MoSiV1 steel.

Effect of hot working on microstructure and mechanical properties of TC11/Ti_2AlNb dual-alloy joint welded by electron beam welding process

The influence of hot working on the microstructures of TC11/Ti2 Al Nb dual-alloy joints welded by electron beam welding(EBW) process was investigated. The tensile tests were performed at room temperature for specimens before and after thermal exposure. The results show that the fusion zone of TC11/Ti2 Al Nb dual-alloy joint welded by EBW is mainly composed of β phase. After deformation and heat treatment, the grain boundaries of the as-cast alloy are broken and the fusion zone mainly consists of β, α2and α phases. The fusion zone performs poor property in the tensile test. Specimens before and after thermal exposure all fail in this area under different deformation conditions. The ultimate tensile strength of specimens after heat treatment is up to 1190 MPa at room temperature. The joints by water quenching after deformation have better plasticity with an elongation up to 4.4%. After thermal exposure at 500 °C for 100 h, the tensile strength of the specimen slightly rises while the ductility changes a little. SEM observation shows that the fracture mechanism is predominantly transgranular under different deformation conditions.

Morphology development of elongated α phases in hot working of large-scale titanium alloy plate

The role of subtransus hot working on microstructure morphology of TA15 titanium alloy plate with elongatedαphases was studied by quantitative metallography on different sections. The results show that the microstructure morphology is mainly affected by loading direction. When the sample is compressed along normal direction, microstructure on the section vertical to normal direction has equiaxed primaryαphase but microstructure on the section vertical to rolling direction has strip primaryαphase with long axis along tangential direction. When the sample is compressed along rolling direction, microstructure on the section vertical to normal direction has strip primaryαphase elongated along tangential direction but microstructure on the section vertical to rolling direction consists of strip and irregular broad-band primaryαphase. The strip primaryαphase aspect ratio is smaller at lower temperature due to the dynamic break-down ofαphase. The difference on primaryαphase aspect ratio between different sections decreases after compression along distinct directions in two loading passes, suggesting the improvement of equiaxity of primaryαphase.

Effect of Rare Earth Composite Modification on Microstructure and Properties of a New Cast Hot-Work Die Steel

The effects of RE modification on structure and the properties of a new cast hot work die (CHD) steel were investigated. The grains of the CHD steel are refined by RE modification. With the increase of RE addition, both grain size and inclusion amount are reduced. Appropriate amount of RE results in decrease in inclusion amount and formation of spheroidal inclusions uniformly-distributed in steel, so that the morphology and distribution of inclusions are improved. RE composite modification favors the formation of bainite, austenite and fine lath martensite with dense dislocation. When the residual RE content reaches 0.02%, no obvious changes in strength and hardness are found, while fracture toughness and threshold of fatigue crack growth are increased. The impact toughness, elongation and reduction of cross sectional area are increased by a factor of two, and thermal fatigue resistance is also improved.

Influence of Different Surface Treatments of H13 Hot Work Die Steel on Its Thermal Fatigue Behaviors

Thermal fatigue checking is the general failure of hot work die steels, which is relative with the structures and properties of the steels and the stress alternated during the employment. The Uddeholm test method on thermal fatigue is used to compare the behaviors of different samples, which are treated with plasma nitriding、plasma sulfur carbon nitriding、boronizing or not treated. The results show that the nitriding improves the thermal fatigue property of the tool steel, while the plasma sulfur carbon nitriding and the boronizing impair the property. The mechanisms are induced as follows. By increasing the hardness and changing the stress distribution in the surface layer, surface treatment can decrease the plastic deformation and the tensile stress during the cycling. Therefore, the generation and growth of the cracks are restrained. On the other hand, as results of surface treating, in the surface layer the toughness declines and the expanding coefficient ascendes; the latter change caused the strengthening of the tensile and compressive stress during the cycling. Thus the resistance to thermal fatigue is weakened. Whether or not the surface treatment is favor to thermal fatigue of tool steels relies on which factor is dominant.

Preparation of Ni60-WC Coating by Plasma Spraying, Plasma Re-melting and Plasma Spray Welding on Surface of Hot Forging Die

In order to produce the hear-resistant inner layer of hot-forging die, the plasma spraying and plasma re-melting and plasma spray welding were adopted. Substrate material was W6Mo5Cr4V2, including 10%, 20%, 30% tungsten carbide （WC） ceramic powder used as coating material to obtain different Nickel-based WC alloys coating. Micro-structure and micro-hardness analysis of the coating layer are conducted, as well as thermophysical properties for the coating layer were measured. The experimental results show that the coating prepared with 70%Ni60, 30%WC powder has the best properties with plasma spray welding, in which the micro-hardness can achieve 900HV, meanwhile it can improve the thermal property of hot-forging die dramatically.

STUDY ON DESIGN TECHNIQUES OF A LONG LIFE HOT FORGING DIE WITH MULTI-MATERIALS

A new design technique for the long life hot forging die has been proposed. By finite element analysis, the reason .for the failure of hot forging die was analyzed and it was concluded that thermal stress is the main reason for the failure of hot forging die. Based on this conclusion, the whole hot forging die was divided into the substrate part and the heat-resistant part according to the thermal stress distribution. Moreover, the heat-resistant part was further subdivided into more zones and the material of each zone was reasonably selected to ensure that the hot forging die can work in an elastic state. When compared with the existing techniques, this design can greatly increase the service life because the use of multi-materials can alleviate the thermal stress in hot forging die.

Tempering stability of Fe–Cr–Mo–W–V hot forging die steels

The tempering stability of three Fe–Cr–Mo–W–V hot forging die steels(DM, H21, and H13) was investigated through hardness measurements and transmission electron microscopy(TEM) observations. Both dilatometer tests and TEM observations revealed that DM steel has a higher tempering stability than H21 and H13 steels because of its substantial amount of M_2C(M represents metallic element) carbide precipitations. The activation energies of the M_2C carbide precipitation processes in DM, H21, and H13 steels are 236.4, 212.0, and 228.9 kJ/mol, respectively. Furthermore, the results indicated that vanadium atoms both increase the activation energy and affect the evolution of M_2C carbides, resulting in gradual dissolution rather than over-aging during tempering.

Ni60-SiC Coating Prepared by Plasma Spraying, Plasma Re-melting and Plasma Spray Welding on Surface of Hot Forging Die

In order to produce the hear-resistant inner layer of hot-forging die, plasma spraying and plasma re-melting and plasma spray welding were adopted. Substrate material was W6Mo5Cr4V2, including 10%, 20%, 30% SiC ceramic powder used as coating material to obtain different Ni-based SiC alloys coating. Micro-structure and micro-hardness analysis of the coating layer were followed, as well as thermophysical properties for the coating layer were measured. The experimental results show that the coating prepared with 70% Ni60, 30% SiC powder has best properties with plasma spray welding, in which the micro-hardness can achieve 1100 HV, meanwhile can improve the thermal property of hot-forging die dramatically.

Recrystallization behavior of Ti40 burn-resistant titanium alloy during hot working process

The recrystallization behavior of deformed Ti40 alloy during a heat-treatment process was studied using electron backscatter dif- fraction and optical microscopy. The results show that the microstructural evolution of Ti40 alloy is controlled by the growth behavior of grain-boundary small grains during the heating process. These small grains at the grain boundaries mostly originate during the forging proc- ess because of the alloy＇s inhomogeneous deformation. During forging, the deformation first occurs in the grain-boundary region. New small recrystallized grains are separated from the parent grains when the orientation between deformation zones and parent grains exceeds a certain threshold. During the heating process, the growth of these small recrystallized grains results in a uniform grain size and a decrease in the av- erage grain size. The special recrystallization behavior of Ti40 alloy is mainly a consequence of the alloy＇s high β-stabilized elemeutal con- tent and high solution strength of the β-grains, which partially explains the poor hot working ability of Ti-V-Cr-type bum-resistant titanium alloys. Notably, this study on Ti40 bum-resistant titanium alloy yields important information related to the optimization of the microstruc- tures and mechanical properties.

Morphology transformation of primary strip α phase in hot working of two-phase titanium alloy

Microstructural development in hot working of TA15titanium alloy with primary stripαstructure was investigated withthe aim to globularizeαstrips.Results show that the mechanisms of morphology transformation are the same to the spheroidizationmechanisms of lamellar structure.Boundary splitting and termination migration are more important than coarsening due to the largesize of stripα.Theαstrips are stable in annealing due to the unfavorable geometrical orientation of intra-αboundaries,the largethickness of strip and the geometrical stability ofαparticles.Predeformation and low speed deformation accelerate globularization ofαstrips in the following ways:direct changing of particle shape,promotion of boundary splitting and termination migration byincreasing high angle grain boundaries and interfacial area,promotion of coarsening by forming dislocation structures.Largepredeformation combined with high temperature annealing is a feasible way to globularize stripα.

Modeling of microstructure evolution of AZ80 magnesium alloy during hot working process using a unified internal state variable method

In this paper, a unified internal state variable(ISV) model for predicting microstructure evolution during hot working process of AZ80 magnesium alloy was developed. A novel aspect of the proposed model is that the interactive effects of material hardening, recovery and dynamic recrystallization(DRX) on the characteristic deformation behavior were considered by incorporating the evolution laws of viscoplastic flow, dislocation activities, DRX nucleation and boundary migration in a coupled manner. The model parameters were calibrated based on the experimental data analysis and genetic algorithm(GA) based objective optimization. The predicted flow stress, DRX fraction and average grain size match well with experimental results. The proposed model was embedded in the finite element(FE) software DEFORM-3 D via user defined subroutine to simulate the hot compression and equal channel angular extrusion(ECAE) processes. The heterogeneous microstructure distributions at different deformation zones and the dislocation density evolution with competitive deformation mechanisms were captured.This study can provide a theoretical solution for the hot working problems of magnesium alloy.

Carbide Coating Preparation of Hot Forging Die by Plasma Processing

To meet the performance requirements of hot forging die heat resistant layer, the Ni60-SiC coating, Ni60-Cr3C2 coating, and Ni60-WC coating were prepared using W6Mo5Cr4V2 as substrate material with 30%SiC, 10%Cr3C2, 30%WC powder by means of plasma spraying and plasma spray re-melting and plasma spray welding, respectively. Microstructure of each carbide coating was analyzed, micro-hardness was tested, and mainly thermal parameters of coating were detected. The experimental results show that using plasma spray welding, the performance of 70%Ni60/30%SiC powder is the best, and its micro-hardness can achieved 1100HV, showing good thermal-physical property.

Kinetics for static recrystallization after hot working of 0.38C-0.99Cr-0.16Mo steel

The restoration mechanisms for static recrystallization of work-hardened austenite were investigated by using double-pass compression tests performed on medium-carbon steel containing chromium and molybdenum. The softening fraction was defined by 2% offset method. The results show that Avrami exponent of about 0.21 is insensitive to deformation temperature, indicating that the action of steel grade should be considered. The time of 50% recrystallization (t0.5) decreases noteworthily with the increase of deformation temperature. Apparent activation energy for static recrystallization of 195 kJ/mol, which is close to that of vanadium microalloyed steel, is obtained by calculating. The increasing trend of the driving force for recrystallization is opposite to that of the deformation temperature, which is attributed to the number of operative slip system increasing as temperature increasing.

Processing map and hot working mechanisms of Cu-Ag alloy in hot compression process

For Gu-Ag alloy, an important parameter called workability in the forming process of materials can be evaluated by processing maps yielded from the stress-strain data generated by hot compression tests at temperatures of 700-850 °C and strain rates of 0.01-10 s-1. And at the true strain of 0.15, 0.35 and 0.55, respectively, the responses of strain-rate sensitivity, power dissipation efficiency and instability parameter to temperature and strain rate were studied. Instability maps and power dissipation maps were superimposed to form processing maps, which reveal the determinate regions where individual metallurgical processes occur and the limiting conditions of flow instability regions. Furthermore, the optimal processing parameters for bulk metal working are identified clearly by the processing maps.

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.

APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL SIMULATION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOT WORKING PROCESSES

Modelling has become a more and more valuable tool in the design, control and development of steel processing. Empirical regression equations, physically based approachs, artificial neural networks and hybrid models are being theied in computer modelling. In all cases, relevant data are necessary, which can be most economically obtained by physical simulation. Physical simulation with a Gleeble simulator has been used in a large number of tasks at the University of Oulu for ten years in cooperotion with the Finnish metals industry. Some examples of these will be described and discussed below, such as the optimization of the recrystallization controlled rolling process, the improvement of the hot strength model for the control of coiling tension and the optimization of continuous strip annealing schedules.Finally,brief remarks will be then on a couple of projects now under way.