The Inspection of Spheroidized Annealing on SCM435 Cold-Forging Quality Steel Wires with Protective Atmosphere

Abstract

A cold-forging quality steel rod is usually applied for manufacturing wire which is generally produced by drawing wire coil into wire, followed by spheroidized annealing treatment to achieve the necessary formability for cold forging. The subcritical and intercritical processes are usually used to spheroidize the steel wires. The cold-forging quality SCM435 alloy medium carbon steel wires are widely used to manufacture high tension bolts for mechanical and heavy industry. In this study, the spheroidized annealing experiments on SCM435 alloy steel wires are conducted in a commercial bell furnace with a protective atmosphere of nitrogen or hydrogen. The mechanical properties of annealed steel wires are measured by tensile and Rockwell hardness tests and the process capability is evaluated. It is experimentally revealed that, for SCM435 alloy medium carbon steel wires, the wire quality with intercritical annealing is much better than that with subcritical annealing and is markedly affected by furnace atmospheres. The intercritical annealing quality on SCM435 alloy steel wire in hydrogen atmosphere furnace is better than in nitrogen atmosphere furnace. A comparison between the results obtained using the intercritical annealing with hydrogen atmosphere and the measures using the subcritical annealing shows that the intercritical annealing effectively improves the performance measures of low strength and high ductility over their values at the subcritical annealing. The results presented in this study could be a reference for fasters wire manufacturers.