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Influence of the Parameters of Induction Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Properties of 50CrMo4*

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Published/Copyright: December 9, 2019

Abstract

Induction heat treatment facilities have a wide application range for heat treatment of cylindrically shaped materials in the steel processing industry due to their reduced process-time and high throughput. The adjustment of the heat treatment process usually aims at reaching a desired hardness. However, the question arises whether the full potential of the applied material is actually exploited. Therefore, this work systematically investigates the influence of the primary microstructure, austenitisation and tempering conditions to the resulting notch impact energy and flow behaviour of a 50CrMo4 quenched and tempered steel, with normalised and soft-annealed prior microstructures. The heat treatments, performed with a laboratory induction heat treatment facility, show that low austenitising temperatures lead to a distinct yield point with reduced strain hardening, while increasing the tempering heating rate results in the precipitation of smaller carbides and a significant increase in tensile strength. Austenitising needs to be adjusted to the primary microstructure to reach an optimum solution state to exploit the hardness and notch impact energy potential.

Kurzfassung

Induktionswärmebehandlungsanlagen finden aufgrund der kurzen Prozesszeiten und dem hohen Materialdurchsatz für die Wärmebehandlung von Stabmaterial breite Anwendung in der stahlverarbeitenden Industrie. Der Prozess wird dabei meist auf die Regelgröße Zielhärte optimiert. Es stellt sich jedoch die Frage, ob dabei das vorhandene Potenzial des verwendeten Werkstoffs vollständig ausgeschöpft wird. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden daher anhand des Vergütungsstahls 50CrMo4 in den Ausgangszuständen normalisiert und weichgeglüht der Einfluss von Ausgangsgefüge, Austenitisierungs- und Anlassbedingungen auf die damit verbundene Kerbschlagzähigkeit und das Fließverhalten systematisch untersucht. Die mit einer Laborinduktionswärmebehandlungsanlage durchgeführten Wärmebehandlungen zeigen, dass niedrige Austenitisierungstemperaturen zu einer ausgeprägten Streckgrenze mit reduzierter Verfestigung führen, während die Erhöhung der Anlassheizrate die Ausscheidung von feineren Karbiden und eine signifikante Festigkeitssteigerung zur Folge hat. Das Austenitisieren muss auf das Ausgangsgefüge angepasst werden, um einen homogenen Lösungszustand zur Ausschöpfung des Härte- und Kerbschlagpotenzials zu erreichen.


*

Lecture held at ASMET Werkstofftechniktagung 2019 & 31. Härtereitagung, March 28–29, 2019, Vienna, Austria

4 (Corresponding author/Kontakt)

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Published Online: 2019-12-09
Published in Print: 2019-12-11

© 2019, Carl Hanser Verlag, München

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