Carbide Evolution Behavior of GCr15 Bearing Steel During Aging Process

doi:10.11901/1005.3093.2023.169

Chinese Journal of Materials Research

2024, Vol. 38

Issue (2): 130-140 DOI: 10.11901/1005.3093.2023.169

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Carbide Evolution Behavior of GCr15 Bearing Steel During Aging Process

LIU Zhenhuan¹^,², LI Yonghan¹^,², LIU Yang¹(

), WANG Pei¹, LI Dianzhong¹

^1.Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, China
^2.School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Shenyang 110016, China

Cite this article:

LIU Zhenhuan, LI Yonghan, LIU Yang, WANG Pei, LI Dianzhong. Carbide Evolution Behavior of GCr15 Bearing Steel During Aging Process. Chinese Journal of Materials Research, 2024, 38(2): 130-140.

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Abstract

The evolution behavior of carbides in GCr15 bearing steel and its influence on the impact toughness during long-term aging at 170^oC have been investigated by means of SEM, TEM, and XRD, aiming to meet the requirements of vacuum dry pump bearings. The results demonstrate that after quenching at 840^oC and the tempering at 230^oC, the hardness of GCr15 steel remains above 59 HRC with minimal retained austenite, which is favorable to the enhancement of performance and dimensional stability for the steel at 170^oC. During the aging process, carbon atom partitioning and carbide precipitation lead to a decrease in carbon concentration, lattice distortion and micro-zone stress strain of the matrix, while transitional carbides precipitate, coarsen and then transform into non-coherent cementite. The resultant effect of these microstructural variation is a reduction in material hardness, while the impact toughness initially increasing and then decreasing. However, the cooperative effect of the decarbonization of martensite and carbide type transformation makes hardness of steels remain stable or even increase a little in between 1000 h and 2000 h during the aging process. To improve the microstructure and performance stability during the aging process, cryogenic treatment was conducted after quenching. The introduction of high-density defects promotes effective carbon distribution during tempering and aging, which gives rise to uniform distribution and size control of fine carbides. Cryogenic treatment reduces the carbide growth rate from 298 nm³/h to 229.5 nm³/h, which delays the performance decline effectively and makes the GCr15 bearing steel satisfied with demands of vacuum dry pump bearings.

Key words: metallic materials GCr15 aging treatment Impact toughness cryogenic treatment carbide evolution

Received: 09 March 2023

ZTFLH:

TG161

Fund: Science and Technology Service Network Initiative(KFJ-STS-QYZD-2021-20-002)

Corresponding Authors: LIU Yang, Tel: (024)83971973, E-mail: yangliu@imr.ac.cn

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https://www.cjmr.org/EN/10.11901/1005.3093.2023.169 OR https://www.cjmr.org/EN/Y2024/V38/I2/130

Table 1 Chemical compositions of experimental GCr15 steel (mass fraction, %)

Table 2 The Q-(C)-T heat treatment procedure

Table 3 Ratio of diffraction intensity factors of distinct crystal planes

Fig.1 Microstructures of samples with different heat treatment processes (a, d) process 0, (b, e) process 1, (c, f) process 2

Table 4 Hardness, impact toughness, and retained austenite content of various heat treatment processes

Fig.2 TEM bright-field microstructure pictures of samples aged at various periods (a) #1-0, (b) #1-2000, (c) #1-5000, (d) #2-0, (e) #2-2000, (f) #2-5000

Fig.3 XRD spectra of process 1 and 2 samples aged at various periods (a) process 1, (b) process 2

Fig.4 Carbon content of martensite in samples treated with process 1 and 2 over the aging process

Table 5 Dislocation density of samples with different aging time

Fig.5 Impact toughness and hardness changes during aging of different process samples

Fig.6 TEM bright field figures and SEAD spectra of carbide morphology of process 1 samples (a, c) before aging, (b, d) after aging for 2000 h

Fig.7 Morphology of secondary cracks in samples for different aging time (a, b) before aging, (c, d) aging for 3000 h

Fig.8 SEM figures of impact crack origin of sample after long-term aging

Fig.9 TEM images of the microstructure morphology of samples after different treatments (a) process 1 (after cryogenic treatment), (b) Process 2 (without cryogenic treatment)

Fig.10 Microstructure morphology of samples after heat treatment process 1 and 2 (a, c) process 1 (after cryogenic treatment), (b, d) process 2 (without cryogenic treatment)

Table 6 Average carbide size of the samples after aging for different time (nm)

Fig.11 Schematic of cryogenic treatment on carbide distribution and size (a, b) after cryogenic treatment, (c, d) without cryogenic treatment

Fig.12 Variation of average length of needle-like carbides during aging at 170^oC

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