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Effect of boron concentration on microstructures and properties of Fe–B–C alloy steel

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Abstract

The solidification microstructure, types of eutectic borocarbides, heat treatment properties and wear resistance of steel with x wt% B–0.4 wt% C–6.0 wt% Cr–4.0 wt% Mo–1.0 wt% Al–1.0 wt% Si–1.0 wt% V–0.5 wt% Mn (x = 1.0, 2.0, 3.0) have been investigated in this present study. The results indicate that the as-cast Fe–B–C alloy steel consists of pearlite, ferrite, and borocarbides M2(B,C) (M = Fe, Cr, Mo, V, Mn). After quenching or quenching and tempering treatment, ferrite and pearlite transform into martensite. With the increase of boron content, the macrohardness of alloys increases obviously while wear loss decreases. Borocarbides with chromium addition have good toughness and no cracks are observed on worn surfaces. The wear mechanism changes from micro-cutting accompanied with the spalling of borocarbides to single micro-cutting with the boron content rising.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (51475005 and 51641105), Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (2014JQ2-5028), Scientific Research Program Funded by Shaanxi Provincial Education Department (15JK1486), the Science and Technology Project of Guangdong Province in China (2015B090926009), the Science and Technology Project of Guangzhou City in China (201604046009), and Project Supported by the Open Research Subject of Key Laboratory of Special Materials and Manufacturing Technology in Sichuan Provincial Universities (szjj2016-089).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Xiangyi Ren, Jiandong Xing & Shuli Tang

  2. Research Institute of Advanced Materials Processing Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of China

    Hanguang Fu & Yongwei Yang

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  1. Xiangyi Ren
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Correspondence to Xiangyi Ren or Hanguang Fu.

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Ren, X., Fu, H., Xing, J. et al. Effect of boron concentration on microstructures and properties of Fe–B–C alloy steel. Journal of Materials Research 32, 3078–3088 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2017.304

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