Influence of Boron Additions on Mechanical Properties of Carbon Steel

Abstract

This work aims at the development of carbon steel AISI 1536 through the microalloying addition of boron. Three grades of this steel with different content of boron up to 0.0055% were melted in 100 kg induction furnace. The pro- duced steels were hardened at 960°C for 30 min., followed by tempering at different temperatures and durations. All hardened steels have martensite phase as illustrated with microstructures and X-ray diffraction. Hardness of all tem- pered steel samples was measured to calculate the activation energies of carbon migration through martensite phase. The results indicated that the activation energies of carbon migration through martensite phase decreases with the in- crease of boron content due to its positive effect on the crystallinity of martensite phase. Also, the results showed that the addition of boron up to 0.0023% can improve the steel properties at the lowest temperature and tempered time.

Share and Cite:

Ghali, S. , El-Faramawy, H. and Eissa, M. (2012) Influence of Boron Additions on Mechanical Properties of Carbon Steel. Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 11, 995-999. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2012.1110101.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] T. I. Titova, N. A. Shulgan and I. Yu. Malykhina, “Effect of Boron Microalloying on the Structure and Hardenabil- ity of Building Steel,” Metal Science and Heat Treatment, Vol. 49, No. 1-2, 2007, pp. 39-44.
[2] M. A. Bedolla-Jacuinde, C. Maldonado and J. M. Cabrera, “Hot Ductility Behavior of a Low Carbon Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) Microalloyed with Boron,” Mate- rials Science and Engineering: A, Vol. 528, No. 13-14, 2011, pp. 4468-4474.
[3] A. Bardelcik, C. P. Salisbury, S. Winkler, M. A. Wells and M. J. Worswick, “Effect of Cooling Rate on the High Strain Rate Properties of Boron Steel,” International Journal of Impact Engineering, Vol. 37, No. 6, 2010, pp. 694-702. doi:10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2009.05.009
[4] American Society for Metals, “Boron Steel,” 2nd Edition, American Society for Metals, Metals Park, New York, 1953.
[5] US Steel, “USS Q-TEMP Steels for Cold-Forged and Heat-Treated Parts,” US Steel, Pittsburgh, 1973.
[6] B. M. Kapadia, “Mechanical Working and Steel Process- ing XIII,” AIME, New York, 1975, pp. 266-293.
[7] W. T. Cook and P. T. Arthur, “Heat Treatment 79,” The Metals Society, London, 1980, pp. 126-131.
[8] T. G. Harvey, “Iron Age,” Annual Reports on the Pro- gress of Chemistry, Vol. 155, 1945, pp 52-54.
[9] V. C. Uvaraja and N. Natarajan, “Optimization of Friction and Wear Behaviour in Hybrid Metal Matrix Composites Using Taguchi Technique,” Journal of Minerals and Ma- terials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 8, 2012 , pp. 757-768.
[10] T. Senthilkumar and T. K. Ajiboye, “Effect of Heat Treatment Processes on the Mechanical Properties of Medium Carbon Steel,” Journal of Minerals and Materi- als Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2012, pp. 143-152.
[11] D. A. Fadare, T. G. Fadara and O. Y. Akanbi, “Effect of Heat Treatment on Mechanical Properties and Micro- structure of NST 37-2 Steel,” Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2011, pp.299-308.
[12] Z. Huang, J. Xing and C. Guo, “Improving Fracture Toughness and Hardness of Fe2B in High Boron White Cast Iron by Chromium Addition,” Materials & Design, Vol. 31, No. 6, 2010, pp. 3084-3089. doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2010.01.003
[13] R. A. Grange, “Boron, Calcium, Columbium and Zirco- nium in Iron and Steel,” Wiley for the Engineering Foundation, New York, 1957
[14] B. M. Kapadia, “ Effect of boron additions on toughness of heat-treated low alloy steels”, Journal of Heat Treatment, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1987, pp. 41-53.
[15] R. N. Imhoff and J. W. Poynter, “Some Metallurgical Characteristics of Medium-Carbon Boron-Treated,” Metal Progress, Vol. 63, 1953, pp. 97-104.
[16] B. M. Kapadia, “Prediction of the Boron Hardenability. Effect in Steel-A Comprehensive Review,” In: D. V. Doane and J. S. Kirkaldy, Eds., Hardenability Concepts with Applications to Steel, AIME-TMS, Warrendale, 1978, pp. 448-482.
[17] B. M. Kapadia, R. M. Brown and W. J. Murphy, “The Influence of Nitrogen, Titanium and Zirconium on the Boron Hardenability Effect in Constructional steel,” Trans- actions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Vol. 242, No. 8, 1968, pp. 1689-1694.
[18] S. S. Hansen, “Effect of the Ti/N Ratio on the hardenability and Mechanical Properties of a Quenched- and-Tempered C-Mn-B Steel,” Metallurgical and Materials Transaction A, Vol. 28, No. 10, 1997, pp 2027-2035.
[19] R. Habu, M. Miyata, S. Sekino and S. Goda, “Im- provement of Hardenability of Steel Containing Alumi- nium and Boron by Double Quenching,” Transactions of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, Vol. 23, 1983, pp. 176-183.
[20] G. F. Melloy, P. R. Slimmon and P. P. Podgurski, “Opti- mizing the Boron Effect,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, Vol. 4, No. 10, 1973, pp. 2279-2289. doi:10.1007/BF02669367
[21] W. Craft and J. L. Lamont, “Effect of Some Elements on Hardenability,” Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Vol. 158, 1944, pp.157-167.
[22] R. A. Grange, “Estimating the Hardenability of Carbon Steels,” Metallurgical and Materials Transactions B, Vol. 4, No. 10, 1973, pp. 2231-2244. doi:10.1007/BF02669363
[23] L. W. Ma, X. Wu and K. Xia, “Microstructure and Property of a Medium Carbon Steel Processed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing,” In: J. M. Cairney, S. P. Ringer and R. Wuhrer, Eds., Materials Forum, Vol. 32, Institute of Materials Engineering Australasia, Ltd., Mel- bourne, 2008, pp. 35-38.

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.