Abstract
Effects of cryogenic treatment and tempering temperature on the amount of retained austenite, hardness and wear properties has been investigated using alloy tool steel, STD 11. Cryogenic treatments were performed at the temperatures of $-100^{\circ}C$, $-150^{\circ}C$ and $-196^{\circ}C$, and tempering were performed at $200^{\circ}C$ and $530^{\circ}C$. It was shown that lower hardness value was obtained on high temperature ($530^{\circ}C$) tempering even after cryogenic treatment. And retained austenite was not entirely transformed to martensite after cryogenic treatment even at $-196^{\circ}C$, which was not consistent with the belief that $-80^{\circ}C$ was sufficient to entirely transform any austenite retained in the quenched microstructure. Austenite retained in cryogenic treated condition was completely transformed to martensite only after tempering at $530^{\circ}C$. As far as wear test conditions in this investigation, it was found that cryogenic treatments improved the sliding wear resistance, but improvement of wear resistance was not directly related with retained austenite contents. And it was found that predominent wear mechanisms of STD 11 steel were oxidation wear and adhesive wear In sliding wear conditions.