Powder Metallurgically Produced Carbide Free Bainite

Abstract

Steels with carbide free bainitic (CFB) microstructures show excellent strength, toughness and wear resistance. Cast or wrought products produced by conventional metallurgy have become gradually introduced in manufacturing of numerous machine components. The required silicon addition of more than 1.5wt% in CFB-steels limits the possibilities to produce components of these steels by P/M methods. The aim of this work has been to investigate the possibilites to produce CFB-steels by pressing and sintering. Four different powder mixtures based on Distaloy DC powder have been pressed to a relative density of 90 % and sintered in a N2-H2 atmosphere at 1150 °C. The sintered components were then austenitized followed by austempering at a temperature above the martensite start temperature. Tensile and impact testing together with microhardness measurements have been performed. The microstructures were studied by optical microscopy as well as SEM and XRD-methods. The tensile strength values achieved varied from 313 to 737 MPa, the elongation after fracture were between 0.1 and 0.2%. The impact toughness values varied between 4 and 11 J. The hardness of the bainite after short sintering time varied between 630 and 710 HV and the hardness of the CFB was 350 HV after short sintering time but reached 573 after prolonged sintering. The microstructure consisted mainly of bainite, small amount of CFB mixed with austenite but also of ferrite and retained austenite after short sintering time. A longer sintering time created a structure consiting of mainly CFB with bainite and a small amount of ferrite. The most interesting applications for P/M produced CFB-containing steels should be components subjected to sliding or rolling-sliding wear loads, as gears. The hardness and strenght values achieved in the present work indicate that P/M produced CFB-steels can prove superior to conventional P/M steels in many applications.