Development and application of a new hot-work die steel for hot stamping

A new hot-work die steel for hot stamping was developed, and used the die for mass production. The produced die showed good performance owing to its high heat conductivity and wear-resistant characteristics. Two different benchmarking hot-work die steels were investigated, and then compared in terms of their impact ductility, temper characteristics ,heat conductivity, and thermal stability. The result of the high-temperature friction wear test indicated that oxidative wear was the main mode in high temperature. On the basis of the comparison and test results, the alloying composition of the new hot-work die steel was especially designed. The new die steel showed good performance with good wear-resistant quality, as well as temper hardness and heat conductivity of HRC 50 and 34.3 W/（ m ~ K）, respectively. Furthermore, without surface plasma nitriding, the die made of the new steel had no obvious galling with 6 142 strokes. After surface plasma nitriding, the die completed 40 000 strokes with good surface. The die life is expected to exceed 200 000 strokes.

Effects of niobium addition on microstructure and properties of CPM121 powder metallurgy high-speed steel

Massive vanadium additions as hard phases in powder metallurgy high-speed steels(PM HSS)lead to higher cost and bad machinability.In this study,ultrahigh alloy PM HSS with CPM121(10W-5Mo-4Cr-10V-9Co,wt.%)as the basic composition,was directly compacted and activation sintered with near-full density(>99.0%)using pre-oxidized and ball-mixed element and carbide powders.Niobium-alloyed steels(w(V)+w(Nb)=10 wt.%)show higher hardness and wear resistance,superior secondary-hardening ability and temper resistance.But excess niobium addition(>5 wt.%)leads to coarsened carbides and deteriorated toughness.EPMA results proved that niobium tends to distribute in MC carbides and forces element W to form M6C and WC carbides.Further,the role of rotary forging on properties of niobium-alloyed steels(S3)was researched.After rotary forging with deformation of 40%,the bending strength and fracture toughness of niobium-alloyed steels could be further improved by 20.74%and 43.86%compared with those of sample S3 without rotary forging,respectively.

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.

Oxidation and Thermal Fatigue Behaviors of Two Type Hot Work Steels During Thermal Cycling

Thermal fatigue test has been carried out on widely used hot work steel 4Cr5MoSiV1 and a low alloyed steel 3Cr3MoV in temperature range of 200 to 700 ℃. Tempering resistance, as well as high temperature hardness/ strength of steel specimens, works as a dominating material parameter on thermal fatigue resistance. During the heating period, high hardness can depress the inelastic deformation. This deformation is the origination of tensile stress, which acts as the driving [orce o{ heat checking during the cooling period. The cyclic strain-oxidation interac- tion can speed up the damage on surface defects, which plays an obvious role in initiation of thermal cracks. On 4CrSMoSiV1 steel specimens, borders between the matrix and inclusions such as titanium compounds, or lager car- bides such as primary carbides, are focused by strain and attacked by oxidation, and are main initiating places of cracks. While on 3Cr3MoV steel specimens, larger strain causes plastic deformation concentrating around grain boundaries. Then the following oxidation accelerates this grain boundary damage and creates cracks.

Comparison of microstructure and property of high chromium bearing steel with and without nitrogen addition

Microstructure and property of bearing steel with and without nitrogen addition were investigated by microstructural observation and hardness measurement after different heat treatment processing. Based on the microstructural observation of both 9Cr18 steel and X90N steel, it was found that nitrogen addition could effectively reduce the amount and size of coarse carbides and also refine the original austenite grain size. Due to addition of nitrogen, more austenite phase was found in X90N steel than in 9Cr18 steel. The retained austenite of X90N steel after quenching at 1050℃ could be reduced from about 60% to about 7 9% by cold treatment at -73℃ and subsequent tempering, and thus finally increased the hardness up to 60 HRC after low temperature tempering and to 63 HRC after high temperature tempering. Furthermore, both the wear and corrosion resistance of X90N steel were found much more superior than those of 9Cr18 steel, which was attributed to the addition of nitrogen. It was proposed at last that nitrogen alloying into the high chromium bearing steel was a promising way not only to refine the size of both carbides and austenite, but also to achieve high hardness, high wear property and improved corrosion resistance of the stainless bearing steel.

Effect of rhenium on the microstructure and mechanical behavior of Fe–2.25Cr–1.6W–0.25V-0.1C bainitic steels

A new ferritic creep resistant steel has been developed by eliminating Nb and adding 1.5 mass % Re to a ferritic steel grade T/P23 with the aim of enhancing its mechanical properties at high temperature.Cast ingots of both steels, new grade and ASTM T/P 23, were hot rolled at 900℃ and then submitted to a thermal treatment consisting of solubilization at 1050℃ and tempering at 700℃. Tempered bainitic microstructures obtained contain second phases reinforcing carbide particles, mainly M_6C and M_（23）C_6 at the boundaries of both, prior austenite grains and bainitic ferrite laths, as well as MC within the grains. Mechanical properties at temperatures ranging from 540 to 600℃ were studied by strain-ratechange tests in compression at strain rates between 10^（-7） and 10^（-4）s^（-1）. These tests showed high stress exponents（n ≥ 20） and activation energies（Q ≈ 400 k J/mol） for both alloys, which were associated with a dislocation movement mechanism with a strong interaction between dislocations and precipitates. On the other hand, a creep exponent of 5 was derived for the stress dependence of minimum creep rate from conventional-type creep tests at 600℃. Although this stress exponent is usually related to a dislocation climb controlled creep mechanism, remarkable microstructural degradation observed with increasing creep time makes difficult to elucidate the true deformation mechanism controlling creep.