EFFECT OF H E A T - T R E A T M E N T ON B R I T T L E N E S S

OF F E R R I T E - A U S T E N I T E STEELS

(UDC 669.14.018.8: 621.'/85.2'74)

I. Ya. S o k o l
Hammer and Sickle Plant
Translated from Metatlovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metallov, No. 3,
pp. 45-47, March, 1965

We studied the nature of hardening and embrittle-

ment for severat melts of steels 1Kh21NST (EI8tl) and
0Kh21NST (E'P53) during brief tempering at 450-650 ~ C. N~
of ]} C I crC~ of s!all~ elementS,Ti %
The chemical composition of the melts studied is shown AI N,
in the table.
1 Not
0,11 [21,08 ,18 0,60 10,61 0,27
, As can be seen from Fig. 1, specimens from melts determined
2-4 with a high content of excess titanimn: ATi = 2 I0,06 20,92 ,15 0,53 0,57 0,60 0,12 10,012
T i - 4 ( C + N) are susceptible to considerable hardening s /0,10 121,35 ,20 0,71 0,61 0,98 0,13 I0,020
4 10,035119, 27 ,00 0,?7 10,29 1,22 C.'ie.nu ~0,020
after tempering at 450-5g0 ~ C. In melt 1, in which all
the titanium is combined into carbides and carbonitrides,

C3
.4

;"5000
; ~ 30 "N~Temf

~ a a
.~ "~ L87Z

~00 :~ ..oi o,9s

zoo ~ o,,, i t ~
f30OO ~ ...,a-__
.P
.0,7'5- "

~ ~ .-o------. 350
~ H8
"' r

" ...5,

0 500 700 ~
~__~___o._~.~/50
0 ZO ~0 rain
Tempering Tempering time
tern perature at 550~
a) b)
Fig. 1. Properties of steel quenched from 1000 ~ C as a function of: a) tem-
pering temperature; b) soaking time during tempering at 550~ the numbers
by the curves show the melts.

185
 15000

~ lO00o
~2 //8
50OO 3500

2500

150O

bO

fO00 i;r IZOO ~

Quenching temperature

Fig. 2. Effect of heating temperature

on properties of ouenched and aged
steel from melt 2. 1) Quenching;
2) quenching plus tempering at 550~ C.

we detect a slight reduction in impact strength

after tempering at 650-750 ~ C which is due to
the formation of martensite through a reduction
in the alloy ability of austenite. This is shown
by a sharp increase in magnetic saturation of the
steel after tempering.

The stun total of changes in the m e c h a n -

ical and physical properties during aging of the
metal with an increased excess titanium content
(Fig. 1) enables us to explain the toughening of
the steel by dispersion-hardening of the ferrite
component through precipitation of an interme-
tallic phase of type NiTi, NiaTi or Ni3(Ti, A1) as
a function of the residual aluminum content [ 1, 2].

The hardening is accompanied by a marked

Fig. 3. Microstructure of specimen of melt 2. Heat
decrease in the metal's plasticity. A rise in
treatment regime: a) 1200 ~ C for 5 rain; water cool-
temperature to 1200-1250 ~ C leading to the o c -
ing; b) same as a) plus heating to 900 ~ C; c) same
currence of a purely ferrite structure considerably
as a) plus heating at 900" C for 20 rain. Electrolytic
intensifies the degree of embrittlement of the
etching in nitric (75~ and acetic (25~ acids, x 200.
steel after aging (Fig. 2). This intense effect of
high-temperature heating on the.ph'ase composi-
tion of two-phase steels with an increased amount of excess titanium is dug to the excessively strong ferrite-forming
action of this element. It should be noted, however, that directly after quenching, the metal retains a sufficient plas-
ticity margin at room temperature (a k greater than 8-10 kgm/cm2), despite a coarse-gram structure (1-2 points).

A second heating of the metal with this structure to 700-1000 ~ C (for example, by weldin~ leads to rapid for-
mation of secondary austenite, the precipitation of which takes the form of plates situated along the borders and crys-
tallographic planes of the ferrite grains, forming a structure of the Widmanstaett type (Fig. g).

The presence of secondary austenite substantially raises the impact strength of the metal after aging. But for
melts 2 and 4 with a reduced amount of austenite-forming elements, the precipitated ),'-phase undergoes martensite
transformation during cooling down to room temperatures. This is conf/rmed by dilatometric analy~.is and by the un-
changed magnetic saturation (4~ Is = 12,600-13,000 gauss) of the specimens before and after secondary treatment.
The formation of martensite shows that the grains of precipitated secondary austemte contain less nickel than crystals
of the equilibrium ),'-phase.

186
 16000 Aging of m e t a l with a f e r r i t e - m a r t e n s i t e structure r e - e m b r i t -
ties the m e t a l (a k less than 1 kgm/cmZ), since the dispersion h a r d -

to.
. O
t 000~ ~ f 5 ening processes occur both in the ferrite and i n t h e martensite D-N,

Delayed cooling or transfer from a high t e m p e r a t u r e to a

, , .. 1o ..X
t e m p e r i n g furnace is not as dangerous as secondary h e a t i n g over
the dispersion-hardening t e m p e r a t u r e range. This is because the
p r e c i p i t a t e d austenite, which is not susceptible to aging, d e c o m -
i
poses with deformation of martensite when cooled below 150 ~ C.
% Hence, brittIe ferrit.e at room t e m p e r a t u r e will be surrounded by
3 plastic, low-carbon martensite which hampers the rapid spreading
.% of rupture cracks, and, on account of this, the i m p a c t strength of
cr- 20
.< the m e t a l remains high (Fig. 4).

fl /0 oO rain LITERATURE CITED

Soaking t i m e
Fig. 4. Phase composition and i m p a c t strength
of melt 2 quenched from 1200 ~ C as a function
of ~ c o n d a r y treatment. 1) Heating to 700 ~ C,
cooling in water; 2) heating to 800 ~ C, cooling
in water; 3) 900 ~ C, c o o l i n g i n w a t e r ;
quenching + tempering 880 ~ C for 1 n; . . . . . . .
heating prior to quenching and transfer to the
furnace at 580 ~ C for 1 h.
1. L Ya. Sokol, "Izvestiya vysshikh uchebnykh z a v e d e n i i ,
Chernaya m e t a l l u r g i y a " , Nd. 1 (1965).
I. Ya. Sokol, MiTOM, No. 10 (1964).
3. #. G. F e l ' d g a n d l e r and M, V. Pridantsev, S t a l ' , No. 1 (1961).
4. L. K o l o m b ' e , MiTOM, No. 8 (1962).
5. K. V. Varli et al., MiTOM, No. 4 (1964).

187