• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.295-304
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• 1998

The effects of retained austenite and carbon content in the retained austenite on the tensile strength-elongation balance and spot weldability of TRIP high strength steel sheet have been investigated. The retained austenite of granular type increased with increasing intercritical annealing and austempering temperature, and film type was increased with the increase of austempering time. The volume fraction of retained austenite increased with decreasing intereritical annealing temperature, and the maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The values of tensile strength-elongation balance increased with decreasing intercritical annealing temperature and maximum value was obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$. The maximum value of tensile strength-elongation balance was obtained at a retained austenite content of about 12%. Tensile shear strength of the specimens with retained austenite was higher than that of the normalizing specimens. With increasing welding current and time, the tensile shear strengh and nugget diameter increased, while nugget thickness showed the peak value and then decreased. The optimum range of welding condition at the given welding pressure of 350kgf was 7~11kA and 10~15 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.106-112
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• 2017

In this study dual-phase steels with different ferrite grain size and martensite fraction were fabricated by varying micro-alloying elements and intercritical anneling temperatures, and then the tensile properties were investigated in terms of yield and tensile strengths, elongation, and yield ratio. The addition of micro-alloying elements reduced ferrite grain size, and the increased intercritial transformation tempeature increased the martensite fracton. The tensile test results showed that yield and tensile strengths of all the steel specimens increased with increasing the martensite fraction. However, the elongation and yield ratio were differently changed according to variations in the morphology and carbon content of martensite, ferrite grain size, and precipitates resulting from the addition of micro-alloying elements and intercritical annealing.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2020

Effect of heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical properties of an Fe-6.5Mn-0.08C medium-manganese steel is investigated in this study. Three kinds of medium-manganese steel specimens are fabricated by varying heat treatments of intermediate quenching (IQ), step quenching (SQ), and intercritical annealing (IA). Hardness and tensile tests are performed to examine the correlation of microstructure and mechanical properties for the Fe-6.5Mn-0.08C medium-manganese steel specimens. The IQ and SQ specimens have microstructures of martensite matrix with ferrite, whereas IA specimen exhibits microstructure of acicular ferrite matrix with martensite. The tensile test results show that the SQ specimen with martensite matrix has the highest yield strength and the lowest elongation. On the other hand, the SQ specimen has the highest hardness due to the relatively lower reduction of carbon content in martensite during intercritical annealing. According to the fractography of tensile tested specimens, the SQ specimen exhibits a dimple and quasi-cleavage fracture appearance while the IQ and IA specimens have fully ductile fracture appearance with fine-sized dimples caused by microvoid coalescence at ferrite and martensite interface.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.293-299
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• 2009

The microstructures and mechanical properties of Dual Phase (DP), Transformation-Induced Plasticity (TRIP), and Quenching & Partitioning (Q&P) steels were investigated in order to define the strengthening mechanism of 0.2 C steel. An intercritical annealing between Ac1 and Ac3 was conducted to produce DP and TRIP steel, followed by quenching the DP and TRIP steel being quenched at to room temperature and by the TRIP steel being austemperingaustempered-air cooling cooled the steel toat room temperature, respectively. The Q&P steel was produced from full austenization, followed by quenching to the temperature between $M_s$ and $M_f$, and then enriching the carbon to stabilize the austenite throughout the heat treatment. For the DP and TRIP steels, as the intercritical annealing temperature increased, the tensile strength increased and the elongation decreased. The strength variation was due to the amount of hard phases, i.e., martensite and bainite, respectively in the DP and TRIP steels. It was also found that the elongation also decreased with the amount of soft ferrite in the DP and TRIP steels and with the amount of the that was retained in the austenite phasein the TRIP steel, respectively for the DP and TRIP steels. For the Q&P steel, as the partitioning time increased, the elongation and the tensile strength increased slightly. This was due to the stabilized austenite that was enriched with carbon, even when the amount of retained austenite decreased as the partitioning time increased from 30 seconds to 100 seconds.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.10-19
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• 1997

This study has been conducted to investigate the effects of initial structure on the microstructure and tensile properties of high strength trip steel sheet. The initial structure before austempering remarkably influenced the second phase. The specimen with normalized initial structure showed mainly bainitic ferrite and retained austenite, while the as rolled specimen and spherodized specimen showed martensite plus retained austenite and martensite plus bainitic ferrite with small retained austenite, respectively. Two type of retained austenite, film type and granual type were observed in all specimens. The as rolled specimen appeared the highest contents of retained austenite owing to the compressive stress by cold rolling. The contents of retained austenite increased with increasing intercritical annealing temperature and austempering time. Tensile strength showed the highest in the as rolled specimen, while the highest elongation were obtained in the normalized specimen. The maximum T.S.${\times}$El. Value showed in normalized initial structure and increased with increasing intercritical annealing and austempering time. The highest Value of T.S.${\times}$El. obtained at austempering temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ and retained austenite of 12%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.263-266
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• 2009

Transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel consisting of ferrite, austenite, and bainite phases was regarded as an excellent candidate for automotive applications due to the good combination of ductility and strength. The aim of the present study was to understand the microstructural characteristics of ultrafine grained (UFG) TRIP low-carbon steel fabricated via equal channel angular pressing accompanied with intercritical- and isothermal-annealing treatments. When compared to coarse grained counterpart, only the volume fraction of austenite phase in UFG TRIP steel remained unchanged, but all other microstructural variables such as size and morphology were different. It was found that UFG TRIP steel showed the homogeneous distribution of each constituent phase, which was discussed in terms of annealing treatments done in this study.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.162-166
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• 2011

Effects of chemical compositions and manufacturing conditions on mechanical properties and microstructures were investigated in order to obtain galvannealed high strength dual phase steel sheets with superior mechanical properties and coating properties. An intercritical annealing between Ac1 and Ac3 was conducted to produce the DP (dual phase) steel sheets, followed by quenching to room temperature. The purposes of Al addition are to reduce the iron oxidation with chemical composition (Si, Mn etc.) and to improve the wettability by liquid zinc. The present study will focus on the characterization for making dual phase steel sheets and enhancing the galvanizability of Al added DP steel sheets about continuous annealing line in CGL.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.230-236
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• 2023

The current study deals with the effect of cooling rate and temperature for annealing on medium-carbon Cr-Mo alloy steel, especially for cold heading quality wire rod, to derive the optimum micro-structures for plastic deformation. This is to optimize the spheroidization heat treatment conditions for softening the material. Heat treatment was performed under seven different conditions at a temperature between A_c1 and A_c3, mostly within 720℃ to 760℃, and the main variables at this time were temperature, retention time and cooling rate. Microstructure and phase changes were observed for each test condition, and it was confirmed that they were greatly affected by the cooling rate. It was also confirmed that the cooling rate was changed in the range of 0.1℃/min to 5℃/min and affected by phase deformation and spheroidization fraction. The larger the spheroidization fraction, the lower the hardness, which is associated with the increasing connection of ferrite phases.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.128-137
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• 1997

The formation processes of the retained austenite(${\gamma}_R$) in SHCP100 steel sheets were investigated in order to improve the transformation induced plasticity(TRIP) effect of ${\gamma}_R$. An excellent combination of elongation about 23% and high strength over 830 MPa was achieved by processing of intercritical annealing and isothermal holding. The mechanical properties of TRIP-aided dual phase steel was found to depend on the volume ratio of each phase and the volume fraction of ${\gamma}_R$. It was also noted that the proper mechanical stability of ${\gamma}_R$ improved the mechanical properties. In this work, the best balance of strength-ductility was obtained by holding the steel at $420^{\circ}C$ for 500sec. after annealing at $730^{\circ}C$ for 300 sec.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.104-108
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• 2012

The effect of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 0.4C-2.3Si(wt%) steel with bainitic ferrite matrix were investigated. This steel has been synthesized intergrating concepts from TRIP(Transformation Induced Plasticity) steel & Austempered Ductile Cast Iron(ADI) technology. The low alloy medium carbon (0.4 %C) steel with high silicon (2.3 %Si) was initially annealed for 60 min at $800^{\circ}C$, $820^{\circ}C$ and $840^{\circ}C$ respectively in the intercritical region and then subsequently austempered at various temperatures at $260^{\circ}C$, $320^{\circ}C$ and $380^{\circ}C$ for 30 min in a salt bath. The mechanical properties were measured by using a tensile test. A detailed study of the microstructure of this steel after heat treatment was carried out by means of electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD) technic. In this study, a new low alloy steel with high strength (780~1,050MPa) and exceptionally high ductility (20~40%) was obtained.