• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.1-9
• /
• 1997

The variation of the mechanical properties and the formation of retained austenite with heat treatment conditions in austempered Si bearing carbon steels has been investigated. In the case of a steel containing 0.35C-1.48Si-0.95Mn, it has been found that a feather shape bainite structure of lath are obtained under a isothermal treated condition at just below the Ms temperature, and the martensite, bainitic ferrite and retained austenite of second phase particles on the ferrite matrix for a isothermal treated steels after intercritical annealing are precipitated in a linked shape. The retained austenite with $2{\mu}m$ size induced as TRIP is found to increase with increasing the formation rate of retained austenite for the intercritical annealing and high Si containing steels. The tensile strength is increased as austempering temperature increases in all isothermal treatment temperature, whereas the elongation is shown to roughly decrease as the tensile strength increases. The values of tensile strength-elongation balance have showed a marked dependence upon the elongation rather than the tensile stregth, and their values are increased for high Si containing steels and intercritical annealing condition. The most optimum result has been shown to be the tensile stregth-elongation balance of $2882.4kgf/mm^2.%$ and the elongation of 33.3% for a "B" steel in the heat treating temperature range of $780{\sim}370^{\circ}C$.