Toughness improvement of an ultrahigh carbon steel by rolling bonding with a Cr-Mo steel

Laminated composite materials containing five layers of ultrahigh carbon steel, 1.35%C, and five layers of a Cr-Mo steel were processed by roll bonding. The rolling procedure improves the bonding of layers and refines the microstructure, diminishing grain size and removing the pearlitic zones. Charpy impact tests were carried out to evaluate the impact properties. Toughness of the laminated composite was highly improved respect to the ultrahigh carbon steel. Moreover, it was double than that of the Cr-Mo steel in the arrester orientation. These results reveal the important role of the interfaces in the mechanical properties of the composite materials.