Effect of Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Properties of High Strengths Austempered Cast Steel

고강도 오세템퍼주강의 기계적성질에 미치는 열처리 영향

The study was investigated on the effect of austenitizing and austempering conditions on retained austenite amount and carbon contents in retained austenite and simultaneously the effect of these variation on hardness, tensile and impact properties. A material of as-cast condition is composed of bull's eye structure with ferrite surrounding spheroidized graphite having about $5-10{\mu}m$ size and matrix structure of pearlite. Then, the contents of spheroidized graphite was about 5%. The retained austenite and carbon contents in the retained austenite were increased with the increasing of austenitizing and austempering temperatures, while the retained austenite showed the peak value and is decreased with increasing of austempering time. With increasing of austenitizing temperature, tensile strength, elongation and impact absorb energy increased and hardness was almost not changed, while with increasing of austempering temperature, tensile strength and hardness decreased, whereas elongation and impact absorb energy was increased. With increasing of retained austenite amount, the tensile strength is slowly decreased but elongation was increased with direct proportion. Also, Impact absorb energy is shown identity value untile about 18%, but rapidly increased above it. Elongation and Impact absorb energy are strongly controlled by the amount of retained austenite, but tensile strength is affected with various factors such as retained austenite amount and bainitic morphology.