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Characteristics of Austenite Transformation During Post Forge Cooling of Large-Size High Strength Steel Ingots

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Abstract

The application of large-size plastic injection molds is continuously increasing in automotive and aerospace industries. Having uniform hardenability over the entire volume of the large forged steel blocks is an important scientific and technological challenge. In the present paper, the influences of chemical composition and cooling rate on the kinetics of phase transformations in three medium carbon low alloy forged steels were investigated. A combination of high-resolution dilatometry, light and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, electron backscattered diffraction mapping, and microhardness measurements were employed to accurately determine the critical transformation temperature, identify microstructural constituents (martensite, bainite, pearlite, ferrite, and retained austenite), and quantify the percentages of retained austenite for each experimental condition. Using seven different cooling rates (from 0.003 to 3 °C s−1), the continuous cooling transformation diagrams were constructed for the three investigated steels. The influences of composition and cooling rate on transformation kinetics were analyzed and quantified using the carbon equivalent (CE) notion. The obtained results showed the early formation of bainite at a cooling rate of 0.01 °C s−1 for the steel with higher value of CE. Similarly, it was found that the incubation time for ferrite and pearlite formation is influenced by the CE value, while for some cooling rates martensitic transformation occurred regardless of CE values.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to Mr. Raymond Beauvais, Director Metallurgy at Sorel Forge, Québec, Canada for his technical support in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Génie Mécanique, École de Technologie Supérieure, 1100 rue Notre-Dame Ouest, Montreal, QC, H3C 1K3, Canada

    S. M. Chentouf & M. Jahazi

  2. Laboratoire de technologie des matériaux, Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene, B.P. 32, El-Alia Bab-Ezzouar, 16111, Algiers, Algeria

    S. M. Chentouf

  3. Sorel Forge Inc., 100 McCarthy, Saint-Joseph-de-Sorel, QC, J3R 3M8, Canada

    L.-P. Lapierre-Boire

  4. Institut de Recherche d’Hydro-Québec, 1800 boulevard Lionel Boulet, Varennes, QC, J3X 1S1, Canada

    S. Godin

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  1. S. M. Chentouf
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Chentouf, S.M., Jahazi, M., Lapierre-Boire, LP. et al. Characteristics of Austenite Transformation During Post Forge Cooling of Large-Size High Strength Steel Ingots. Metallogr. Microstruct. Anal. 3, 281–297 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13632-014-0142-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13632-014-0142-8

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