Akhmad Ardian Korda
Rapid austenitization as a method of heat treating steels has been around for quite some time. However it is typically used in surface hardening of tool steels and gears. Recent research has shown that when such method is applied to low carbon steel. Significant improvements to the strength and toughness can be obtained.
Alloys Development and Characterization Laboratory from the department of Metallurgical Engineering in Bandung Institute of Technology has done studies relating to variations in holding time, and variations in quench medium in this field of rapidly austenitized steel. We have discovered unprecedented improvements in the strength and toughness of rapid austenitization heat treatment, which can transform a simple plain low carbon steel into a breakthrough material superior to existing quench-tempered HSLA grades.
Rapid austenitization heat treatment is done on JIS SS400 plain low carbon steel to study how the parameters of holding time and quenching medium affect the mechanical properties of rapid austenitized plain low carbon steel. The steel is characterized using tensile testing, charpy impact testing, fractography using scanning electron microscopy, and microstructural crystallography using electron backscatter diffraction. The most optimal holding time is 180 seconds quenched in iced brine medium with a UTS of 1260 MPa and an impact toughness of 90.5 J/cm2.
Get high strength and toughness steel
This research is useful for the development of high-strength steel. This high-strength steel is a very important material for industrial development in Indonesia. The latest research related to rapid austenization treatment is a significant input for science, especially in the field of developing high strength steel.