Direct Forge Quenching of Medium Carbon and Low Alloy Steel Forgings

Medium Carbon Steel Forgings are often Hardened & Tempered to achieve required strength. Typically forgings are cooled to room temperature from Forging finishing temperature. These forgings are re-heated to Austenizing temperature & then quenched suitably. This work was aimed to use this forging heat and avoid re-heating to save energy making process greener.

The effect of forging temperature and temperature before quenching on microstructure is studied. This is related to the mechanical properties like tensile strength, yield strength and impact toughness. It was observed that martensitic needles in direct quenched parts were slightly longer than the normal hardened and tempered parts. This was attributed to the coarser prior austenite grain size, resulting in fewer nucleation sites in case of direct quenched parts.