• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제46권3호
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• pp.413-422
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• 2014

Presented in this study are the variations of microstructures and mechanical properties with tempering and Post-Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) conditions for SA508 Gr.4N steel used as Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) material. The blocks of model alloy were austenitized at the conventional temperature of $880^{\circ}C$ then tempered and post-weld heat treated at four different conditions. The hardness and yield strength decrease with increased tempering and PWHT temperatures, but impact toughness is significantly improved, especially in the specimens tempered at $630^{\circ}C$. The sample tempered at $630^{\circ}C$ with PWHT at $610^{\circ}C$ shows optimum mechanical properties in hardness, strength, and toughness, excluding only the transition property in the low temperature region. The microstructural observation and quantitative analysis of carbide size distribution show that the variations of mechanical properties are caused by the under-tempering and carbide coarsening which occurred during the heat treatment process. The introduction of PWHT results in the deterioration of the ductile-brittle transition property by an increase of coarse carbides controlling cleavage initiation, especially in the tempered state at $630^{\circ}C$.

• 열처리공학회지
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• 제23권6호
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• pp.338-343
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• 2010

Mechanical properties and microstructures of medium carbon high manganese steels were investigated in terms of alloying elements such as Mn, C contents, and heat treatment condition. Austenite volume fraction was increased with increasing Mn content, leading to hardness decrease in the range of Mn content of above 10% after quenching and tempering. Such results are also supported by microstructural analysis and X-ray diffraction in that the increase in mangaese content results in the increase in austenite fraction. Studies on tempering condition indicated that not only hardness and tensile strength but also charpy impact values were reduced as tempering temperature were raised in the range of $250^{\circ}C$ to $600^{\circ}C$. It was also observed that fracture mode was changed from dimple to intergranular fracture. Such results are thought to be due to very fine carbide precipitation or impurity segreagation at grain boundaries as tempering temperature goes up. Heat treatment of Fe-5Mn-2Si-1Al-0.4C can be optimized by austenitizing at $850^{\circ}C$, air cooling and tempering at $250^{\circ}C$, resulting in 1950 MPa in Tensile strength, 17% in elongation and 23.3 $J/cm^2$ in charpy impact energy with high work hardening characteristics.

• 열처리공학회지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.139-145
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• 2015

Effects of austenitizing, cryogenic treatment and tempering conditions on the phase change, microstructure and Vickers hardness value have been studied in STD11 steel for tool and die. The volume fraction of retained austenite increased with a rise in austenitizing temperature, while the volume fraction of eutectoid $M_7C_3$ carbides decreased. The retained austenite could be reduced by cryogenic treatment i.e., maintaining at $LN_2$ temperature ($-196^{\circ}C$) for 12hrs but a little amount of retained austenite did not transform to martensite further although holding time increased to 24 hrs or more. The microstructure of the quenched and then cryogenictreated specimen showed nano-sized and needle-shaped carbides in matrix due to the decomposition of martensite by tempering, but that of the one without cryogenic treatment still revealed retained austenite by tempering even at $500^{\circ}C$.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
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• pp.1240-1243
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• 2008

The tempering and magnetic annealing are used to improve the soft magnetic properties such as initial permeability coercivity and core loss of the KM35F alloy. The first heat treatmentis performed at the temperature less than the curie temperature of the KM35F alloy to remove the thermal stress for few hours in nitrogen atmosphere. The second stage heat treatment is performed the magnetic annealing at $500{\sim}800^{\circ}C$ for few hours in nitrogen atmosphere, and then quenching to room temperature in absence of oxygen. Finally, magnetic properties of the thermally treated KM35F alloy are investigated for application as a soft magnetic material of the ISO solenoid valve core and plunger.

• 열처리공학회지
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.190-198
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• 1994

In order to study the effect of retained austenite on rolling contact fatigue in high-carbon chromium bearing steel, retained austenite was controlled by only tempering temperature, individually 200, 220 and $240^{\circ}C$. Among various microstructural alteration during rolling contact fatigue test, plate-like carbide most related to the flaking at sub-surface of contact pressure. The plate-like carbides formed during rolling contact fatigue test decrease with increasing tempering temperature, and fatigue life is much more improved. The retained austenite was decreased with the tempering temperature, and that decreased plate-like carbide formation. Therefore fatigue life is much more improved with decreasing retained austenite.

• 비파괴검사학회지
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.77-82
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• 1989

DC potential drop(DCPD) measurement system was made and the optimum measuring conditions have been studied. The room temperature resistivity of commercially available medium carbon steel(S45C) was measured using this technique. DCPD was measured in the specimens which were hardened and tempered at different temperatures. It was found that DCPD reflected the change of the microstructure during tempering very sensitively. It was possible to monitor the stage of tempering of S45C steel nondestructively using DCPD measurement.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.138-144
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• 1989

It has been very important in various industry fields to improve the fatigue strength characteristics of bearings such as bearing life, fatigue limit, etc., because such poor properties could result in shortening the machinery life as well as in decreasing the accuracy. However, no successful heat treatment criterion seems to be available at present. In this study, the effect of the $170^{\circ}C\times120min$ tempering cycles repeated after $380^{\circ}C\times80min$ oil quenching for $800^{\circ}C$ spheroidizing-annealed bearing steel (STB2) as base metal on the $120^{\circ}C$ high temperature rotary bending fatigue strength characteristics were investigated, including the effects on hardness, Charpy impact value and micro-structure, in order to seek for the best heat treatment condition finally. The important results obtained are as follows : 1) The optimal cycle of tempering so that the fatigue strength .sigma. could become the highest was the 4th cycle. And it is confirmed that this $\sigma_{F}$ is about 6 times more increased than that of base metal, and about 1.3 times more increased than the case of the 1 cycle tempered. 2) As a result of the investigation for the effects of tempering cycles on hardness, the hardness at the tempering number of 2 thru 5 cyles was not decreased severely ; only about 10% decrease from those of the quenched and 1 cycle tempered case. Such hardness is equivalent to $H_{R}$/C61-62 with no bad effect on anti-abrasion of bearing steel. 3) In the case of 2 thru 5 cycle tempering as well as 1 cycle tempering, the impact value was not so improved comparing with the case of quenching, but an increase of 5 to 10% could be expected at least. 4) It was experimentally confirmed that the control of the mechanical properties improvement such as fatigue strength and fatigue life for bearing steels could be possible by the number of tempering cycles.

• 한국해양공학회지
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.638-638
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• 1989

It has been very important in various industry fields to improve the fatigue strength characteristics of bearings such as bearing life, fatigue limit, etc., because such poor properties could result in shortening the machinery life as well as in decreasing the accuracy. However, no successful heat treatment criterion seems to be available at present. In this study, the effect of the $170^{\circ}C\times120min$ tempering cycles repeated after $380^{\circ}C\times80min$ oil quenching for $800^{\circ}C$ spheroidizing-annealed bearing steel (STB2) as base metal on the $120^{\circ}C$ high temperature rotary bending fatigue strength characteristics were investigated, including the effects on hardness, Charpy impact value and micro-structure, in order to seek for the best heat treatment condition finally. The important results obtained are as follows : 1) The optimal cycle of tempering so that the fatigue strength .sigma. could become the highest was the 4th cycle. And it is confirmed that this $\sigma_{F}$ is about 6 times more increased than that of base metal, and about 1.3 times more increased than the case of the 1 cycle tempered. 2) As a result of the investigation for the effects of tempering cycles on hardness, the hardness at the tempering number of 2 thru 5 cyles was not decreased severely ; only about 10% decrease from those of the quenched and 1 cycle tempered case. Such hardness is equivalent to $H_{R}$/C61-62 with no bad effect on anti-abrasion of bearing steel. 3) In the case of 2 thru 5 cycle tempering as well as 1 cycle tempering, the impact value was not so improved comparing with the case of quenching, but an increase of 5 to 10% could be expected at least. 4) It was experimentally confirmed that the control of the mechanical properties improvement such as fatigue strength and fatigue life for bearing steels could be possible by the number of tempering cycles.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제28권8호
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• pp.459-465
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• 2018

This paper presents a study of the microstructure and mechanical properties of commercial high-hardness armor (HHA) steels tempered at different temperatures. Although the as-received specimens of all the steels exhibit a tempered martensite structure with lath type morphology, the A steel, which has the smallest carbon content, had the lowest hardness due to reduced solid solution hardening and larger lath thickness, irrespective of tempering conditions. As the tempering temperature increases, the hardness of the steels steadily decreases because dislocation density decreases and the lath thickness of martensite increases due to recovery and over-aging effects. When the variations in hardness plotted as a function of tempering temperature are compared with the hardness of the as-received specimens, it seems that the B steel, which has the highest yield and tensile strengths, is fabricated by quenching, while the other steels are fabricated by quenching and tempering. On the other hand, the impact properties of the steels are affected by specimen orientation and test temperature as well as microstructure. Based on these results, the effect of tempering on the microstructure and mechanical properties of commercial high-hardness armor steels is discussed.

• 열처리공학회지
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.282-289
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• 2009

The effects of the high temperature gas nitriding (HTGN), tempering and subzero treatment of STD11 steel have been investigated. HTGN treatment was carried out at $1050^{\circ}C$, $1100^{\circ}C$ and $1150^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr. in an atmosphere of $1\;kg/cm^2$ nitrogen gas. Tempering and double-tempering were performed at $550^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr. The surface layer of HTGN-treated steel appeared the precipitates of $M_2N$, $M_7C_3$ and $M_{23}C_6$ in the matrix of austenite. However, the interior region exhibited martensite with the precipitation of carbides. The nitrogen content of the surface layer appeared ~1.35 wt.%, ~0.83 wt.% and ~0.56 wt.% at the HTGN treatment temperature of $1050^{\circ}C$, $1100^{\circ}C$ and $1150^{\circ}C$, respectively. The surface hardness of double-tempered and subzero-treated steel measured the maximum value of 828 Hv, 960 Hv, 750 HV after HTGN treatment at the $1050^{\circ}C$, $1100^{\circ}C$ and $1150^{\circ}C$, respectively. These hardness value increased above 230~420 Hv compared with the HTGN-treated steel due to the decrease in retained austenite and existence of fine precipitates.