Improvement in Properties in Steel Heat Treated in an Electric Field

oleh Yip See Miu, Hatem M. Belhaj, Projjal Basu

Penerbit - Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

Kategori - Novel Am

Heat treatment of steel is the most established, reliable, and commercially viable route towards the improvement in mechanical and other properties in its various grades. Flexible heat treatment processes are available nowadays to yield the most suitable set of properties in the finished product. In this study, an innovative technique is employed to enhance the properties by heat treating under the influence of an electric field. Steel wire rods with three different C levels of 0.19%, 0.42%, and 0.72% were chosen. Heat treatment was conducted at temperatures 20oC and 30oC below the critical transformation temperature for any particular grade. During the heat treatment, electric current with varying voltages from 60V to 120V was passed through the samples with a DC power source. Response of treatment on samples was determined by measuring the Rockwell hardness. With increasing voltage from 60V to 120V, the hardness increased from 42.15HRA to 46.67HRA in low C steels. For medium C steel samples, however, a considerable increase in hardness from 47.3HRA to 55.4HRA was noticed with increase in applied voltage from 60V to 120V. For high C steel samples, the hardness increased marginally from 61.32 to 62.62 HRA as the voltage increased from 60V to 120V. The test results indicated that an appreciable saving can be accrued even with the conventional heat treatment cycles by employing an electric field during the heat treatment. The temperature employed in the present study was 60 – 80oC lower than that used in conventional heat treatment cycles. The considerable lowering in process temperature translates directly into energy savings, cost, and ease of operation as well as the improvement in hardness leading to the quality of the final heat treated products.

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