Effect of cryogenic treatment on wear behavior of Sleipner cold work tool steel

Abstract

Cryogenic treatment, also known as subzero heat treatment, is a cooling process that complements conventional heat treatment to improve the properties of metals. Unlike coatings, it is a one-time, inexpensive, permanent operation that affects the entire part. This method is mainly applied to tool steels used in mold making. In this study, the changes caused by the effects of shallow and deep cryogenic treatment on Sleipner cold work tool steel were investigated in terms of microhardness, microstructure, coefficient of friction (COF), and wear rate (WR). For this purpose, the test specimens were subjected to the cryogenic treatments performed at two different temperatures (−80 ºC for the shallow cryogenic treatment (SCT) and − 180 ºC for the deep cryogenic treatment (DCT)) and various retention times (12 h, 24 h for SCT and 12 h, 24 h, 36 h for DCT). Dry sliding wear tests were carried out under different loads (10 N and 20 N) and varying test durations (60, 120, and 240 min) at a constant sliding speed of 0.075 m/s. According to the microhardness results, it was determined that the cryogenic treatment increased the hardness by 6.53 %. According to the microstructure investigations, a more homogeneous structure was observed with the cryogenic treatment, and secondary carbide precipitations were detected. It was observed that the conventional heat-treated (CHT) sample gave the highest COF value with an average coefficient of friction of 0.63. The lowest COF value of 0.58 was observed in the DCT-12 sample. After the wear tests, the lowest wear rate value for both load values was obtained from the DCT-36 specimen.