Rolling Contact Fatigue of Hot-forged Steels out of Prealloyed Powders and Powder Blend

Powder forging is used for heavy-loaded parts (rings of rolling-contact bearings, gears etc.) production. Rolling contact fatigue is material property values of which characterize possibility of practical utilization of such parts. Rolling contact fatigue of some steels obtained out of prealloyed powders Astaloy CrM, Atomet 4601, Atomet 4901 and powder blends iron-carbon-nickel by hot forging is studied in the present paper. Effect of various kinds of heat and thermomechanical treatment on rolling contact fatigue is determined. Thermomechanical treatment provides optimal values of rolling contact fatigue. In this case steel structure contains up to 40% of retained metastable austenite which is transformed to martensite on trials. Thus typically crack is generated on residual pores and non-metallic inclusions instead of martensite zones in wrought steels.