• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.207-213
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• 2022

In this study, variations in the microstructure and hardness of a low-carbon SCM415 steel with austenitizing temperature and cooling rate are investigated. When the austenitizing temperature is lower than the A₁ temperature (738.8 ℃) of the SCM415 steel, the microstructures of both the air-cooled and water-cooled specimens consist of ferrite and pearlite, which are similar to the microstructure of the initial specimen. When heat treatment is conducted at temperatures ranging from the A₁ temperature to the A₃ temperature (822.4 ℃), the microstructure of the specimen changes depending on the temperature and cooling rate. The specimens air- and water-cooled from 750 ℃ consist of ferrite and pearlite, whereas the specimen water-cooled from 800 ℃ consists of ferrite and martensite. At a temperature higher than the A₃ temperature, the air-cooled specimens consist of ferrite and pearlite, whereas the water-cooled specimens consist of martensite. At 650 ℃ and 700 ℃, which are lower than the A₁ temperature, the hardness decreases irrespective of the cooling rate due to the ferrite coarsening and pearlite spheroidization. At 750 ℃ or higher, the air-cooled specimens have smaller grain sizes than the initial specimen, but they have lower hardness than the initial specimen owing to the increased interlamellar spacing of pearlite. At 800 ℃ or higher, martensitic transformation occurs during water cooling, which results in a significant increase in hardness. The specimens water-cooled from 850 ℃ and 950 ℃ have a complete martensite structure, and the specimen water-cooled from 850 ℃ has a higher hardness than that water-cooled from 950 ℃ because of the smaller size of prior austenite grains.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.2 no.6
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• pp.452-460
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• 1992

Effects of the microalloyed elements, temperatures and cooling rates on the strength and toughness of the medium carbon microalloyed hot forging steels obtained by air cooling(A.C.) method and the low carbon microalloyed forging steels by direct quenching(D.Q.) method were investigated. Combined additions of V+Nb produced the optimum combination of strength and toughness with ferrite-pearlite structure of the medium carbon steel by the A.C. method. 831MPa in UTS and 52.1J in toughness were obtained for 0.40c+0.12V+0.07Nb. It was martensite structure for the low carbon steel by the D.Q. method. The highest UTS and toughness obtained by Mo additions were 855MPa and 108j by 0.12C+0.10V+0.03Nb+1.13Mo respectively. Especially, the toughness of the low carbon steel was twice better than that of the medium carbon steel. 110$0^{\circ}C$was more appropriate than 120$0^{\circ}C$ for the reheating and forging temperature and 1.$2^{\circ}C$ /s was the best cooling rate from the viewpoint of the strength and toughness. Multiple regression analysis was used to quantify the influence of the microalloyed elements, temperatures and cooling rates on the strength, toughness, austenite grain size, and the pearlite interlamellar spacing.