Papers by Keyword: Vacuum Heat Treatment

Abstract: A hard-coating on hot work tool steel can be used to obtain higher corrosion resistance, as well as better wear resistance. This study investigates the thermal fatigue performance of AISI H13 hot work tool steel with and without hard chromium plating. Treated specimens were characterized using microstructural analysis, X-ray diffraction analysis and microhardness measurement. The thermal fatigue test is based on cyclic induction heating and water cooling. The specimen was heated to the maximum surface temperature of 670°C followed with water injection to bring the specimen down to a minimum temperature of 25°C. The thermal fatigue testing in this study was conducted using 500 cycles. A vacuum heat treated specimen with a hardness of 47 HRC was used as the reference material. The hard chromium plated layer with a thickness 35 μm had a hardness of 930 HV_0.1. The damage factor, defined as crack depth × crack width, of quenched and tempered H13 specimens and hard chromium plated specimens were 800 and 1760, respectively. The damage factor evaluation verified the vacuum heat treated specimen thermal fatigue resistance is superior to that of the hard chromium plated specimen.

Abstract: The correlation between fracture toughness, hardness and microstructure of vacuum heat-treated high-speed steel AISI M2 was investigated. Our intention was to investigate the influence of microstructural parameters such as the volume fraction of undissolved eutectic carbides, their mean diameter, the mean distance between the carbides, as well as the volume fraction of retained austenite in the matrix, on the above mentioned mechanical and fracture properties. The experimental investigations were performed on the high-speed steel. This steel had the following chemical composition (mass content in %): 0.89% C, 0.20% Si, 0.26% Mn, 0.027% P, 0.001% S, 3.91% Cr, 4.74% Mo, 1.74% V and 6.10% W.

Abstract: Thermal barrier coating (TBC), which consisted of a NiCoCrAlY bond coat (BC) and a ZrO₂-8 wt.%Y₂O₃ topcoat (TC), was fabricated on the nickel-base superalloy by air plasma spray (APS). The BC and TBC was treated by vacuum heat treatment (VHT). The oxidation of coating with and without VHT has been performed at 1050°C. Oxidation behavior of coatings and thermally grown oxide(TGO) scale were studied by SEM with EDS. As shown in the results, after treating by VHT, a continuous Al₂O₃ layer formed more rapidly on the VHT coating than that formed on the APS coating, which can act as a diffusion barrier to suppress the formation of other detrimental oxides. The pre-oxidation treatments reduced the growth rate and extend the steady-state growth stage. The TGO in VHT TBC was still a single layer Al₂O₃ oxide after 120h. However, after same oxidation time, the TGO in APS TBC produced a dual-layer oxide consisting of an inner Al₂O₃ layer and outer spinel layer. Therefore the VHT improves the oxidation resistance of APS coating.

Abstract: The main aim of the present contribution is to show how different heat treatment conditions influence the microstructure of a Fe - [1.5Cr - 0.2Mo] - 0.6C powder system. In vacuum furnaces, the cooling rate is generally determined by the pressure of the gas (basically N2) introduced into the chamber. Different gas pressures have been applied, from 0 to 6 bars. The average cooling rates were calculated in the range of 1180 °C to 400 °C and were varying from 0.1 to 6 °C/s, according to the gas pressure. Considering the cooling rates, increasing the nitrogen pressure resulted in an increased amount of bainite/martensite microstructure. The microstructure constituents ranged from 97% pearlite + 3% ferrite in the system treated at 0 bar to 82 % martensite + 18 % bainite (with small amount of tempered martensite) in the system cooled applying N2 at 6 bars. Mechanical properties have been evaluated in terms of toughness, TRS and hardness for all processing conditions; the analysis of the properties allowed to plot graphs correlating the different properties as function of the characteristic microstructures.

Abstract: The corrosion behavior of the nitrocarburized JIS SKD61 and DH31S hot work steels has been investigated. The as received JIS SKD61 and DH31S steel was quenched and tempered to obtain the tempered martensitic microstructure. The nitrocarburizing treatment was conducted in a 570°C salt bath for 40, 80, and 120 minutes, respectively. Treated specimens were characterized by means of microstructural analysis, microhardness measurements, X-ray diffraction analysis, glow discharge spectrometer analysis and electrochemical tests in a 3.5wt% NaCl aerated solution. The thickness of compound layer of nitrocarburized specimens was about 1-3μm, and the microhardness is in the range between 790 – 820 HV0.05. The compound layer of the nitrided specimen was consisted of ε-phase (Fe2-3N) and the γ’-phase (Fe4N). The highest corrosion potential (Ecorr) in this study reached to -0.3 V for NC-S80 and NC-H80 specimen, it’s about 1.5 times higher than that of ferrite substrate. There is no evident difference on corrosion current density (Icorr) with prolonging nitrocarburizing treatment for both steels. Nevertheless, the corrosion properties were improved by nitrocarburizing process.

Abstract: The paper has studied influence of vacuum heat treatment on Sintered W-Cu Alloy performance with metallography, conductance and micro-hardness examination. It has shown that sintered W-Cu alloy was heatreated in the vacuum, changes of its performance has taken place clearly. This changing cause is from the purify and diffuse of Cu in the vacuum heat treatment.

Abstract: Nano-sized MgAl2O4 powders were treated at 500~1000 oC in a vacuum of 10-3Pa for 2 h, and then sintered at 500~900 oC under 1~6 GPa. The powders with and without vacuum-heat-treatment were investigated by means of Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and Sedimentation Test. It was found that the vacuum-heat-treatment of nano powder could effectively get rid of the absorbed gas on the surface of nano-particles. Bulk nanostructured transparent ceramics without cracks were sintered easily with the treated nano-sized powder. The success rate of nano-sinterning of bulk transparent ceramics was greatly increased when a suitable vacuum-heat-treatment process was used for the starting nano-sized powder.

Abstract: Silicon nitride samples were pressureless sintered with up to 5 w/o MgO to give densities in the range 98-99% of theoretical. After pressureless sintering, selected samples were placed in a vacuum heat treatment furnace surrounded by a carbon bed in a carbon crucible at a pressure of less than 4x10-4 mbar, and vacuum heat treated at different temperatures and times to remove grainboundary glass. The results showed that this was substantially achieved at 1575oC for 3h and that increasing the time to 5 hours gave still further improvement. SEM images, EDX analysis and oxidation tests provided additional evidence for the removal of Mg from the samples.