Structure and properties of high strength low alloyed cold-resistant steel after reheat and direct quenching with tempering

The paper shows comparative investigations of structure of rolled plates from low alloyed coldresistant steel 08CrNi2MoCuNb with guaranteed yield strength 750 MPa after traditional reheat quenching and quenching from rolling heat (direct quenching) with subsequent high temperature tempering. The research is carried out by means of optical metallography, SEM and TEM. The peculiarities of parameters of bainitemartensite structure, which influence the strength level in initial (quenched) state, are revealed. Also, the impact of tempering on structure and properties of rolled plates after reheat and direct quenching is shown.

Improved Mechanical Properties in Ti/Mo-Bearing Martensitic Steel by Precipitation and Grain Refinement

The yield strength and impact energy properties for martensitic steel fabricated by vacuum induction melting, is investigated. It is found that the addition of Ti can improve the yield strength property of the martensitic steel after reheat quenching process, which can be attributed to increase in precipitation hardening from formation of TiC precipitates in the martensitic matrix and a superfine sized (~8μm) grains in the martensitic structure. Moreover, the yield strength can be further enhanced by Mo addition, which can be ascribed to a large amount of freshly nano-sized (1-10nm) precipitates in the final martensitic structure. The experimental and theoretical results on the contribution of TiC precipitates to hardening of the martensitic steel are in excellent agreement. In addition, the impact toughness also has been improved along with yield strength followed by the heat treatment, which can be attributed to the grain refinement and high ratio of high-angle grain boundaries after Mo addition.

Comparision of Direct Quenching and Reheat Quenching Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of a High Strength Steel

The effects of direct quenching and tempering (DQ-T) process and conventional reheat quenching and tempering (RQ-T) processes on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a high strength low alloy steel were investigated. In the as-quenched DQ steel, prior austenite grains are elongated parallel to the rolling direction, whereas the as-quenched RQ steel mainly consists of equiaxed grains; The DQ process was found to enhance the hardenability of steel effectively. The tensile strength and yield strength of DQ specimen, were higher than that of RQ specimen. In contrast, low temperature toughness of DQ-T specimen was generally inferior to that of RQ-T specimen.