Effect of Heat Treatment on the Microstructure of Cast Martensitic Stainless Steel

The resistance of martensitic stainless steels to wear and corrosion is greatly influenced by the martensitic matrix and the presence of carbides. The precipitation of carbides along the grain boundaries will lead to a significant decrease in fracture toughness and furthermore, will increase the risk of intergranular corrosion. With tools made of corrosion-resistant steel castings, this fact is of particular relevance as coarse eutectic carbide precipitates are normally not sufficiently dissolved during conventional austenitization. In this context, the dissolution of carbides will be studied on the basis of systematic heat treatment experiments and observed using light optical microscopy and the resulting microstructure and its impact on the mechanical properties (hardness) will be discussed in the following sections.

Diffusion Induced Changes in Cast and Wrought M2 High-Speed Steel Subject to Homogenisation Annealing

The influence of annealing at 1200 °C for 2, 4 and 8 h on the carbide microstructure of AISI M2 type high-speed steel obtained by both the foundry and conventional metallurgy technologies has been studied. The primary focus was on the kinetics of eutectic carbide decomposition and dissolution in both the cast and wrought M2 high-speed steels under the effect of high temperature.

Morphology of Excess Carbides Damascus Steel

<p class="1Body">Considered the nature of changes in the morphology of carbides of the unalloyed high-carbon alloys type Damascus steel depending on the degree of supercooling of the melt, heat treatment and plastic deformation. It is shown that iron-carbon alloy with carbon content as in white cast iron at high degrees of supercooling can crystallize as a high-carbon steel. Considered three hypotheses for the formation of the eutectic carbides in pure iron-carbon alloys. The first hypothesis is based on the thermal process of dividing plates of secondary cementite or of ledeburite on isolated single grain. The second hypothesis is based on the deformation process of crushing of secondary cementite or of ledeburite into separate fragments (the traditional view on the formation of eutectic carbides). The third hypothesis is based on the transformation of metastable ledeburite in a stable phase of eutectic carbide prismatic morphology. Found that some types of wootz, which carbon content as in of white cast irons not is contain its structure of ledeburite. It is shown that the structure of consists entirely of the eutectic carbides prismatic morphology.</p>