Selection of Heat Treatment Process and Wear Mechanism of High Wear Resistant Cast Hot-Forging Die Steel

Dry sliding wear tests of a Cr-Mo-V cast hot-forging die steel was carried out within a load range of 50–300 N at 400 °C by a pin-on-disc high-temperature wear machine. The effect of heat treatment process on wear resistance was systematically studied in order to select heat treatment processes of the steel with high wear resistance. The morphology, structure and composition were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS); wear mechanism was also discussed. Tribo-oxide layer was found to form on worn surfaces to reduce wear under low loads, but appear inside the matrix to increase wear under high loads. The tribo-oxides were mainly consisted of Fe3O4 and Fe2O3, FeO only appeared under a high load. Oxidative mild wear, transition of mild-severe wear in oxidative wear and extrusive wear took turns to operate with increasing the load. The wear resistance strongly depended on the selection of heat treatment processes or microstructures. It was found that bainite presented a better wear resistance than martensite plus bainite duplex structure, martensite structure was of the poorest wear resistance. The wear resistance increased with increasing austenizing temperature in the range of 920 to 1120 °C, then decreased at up to 1 220 °C. As for tempering temperature and microstructure, the wear resistance increased in following order: 700 °C (tempered sorbite), 200 °C (tempered martensite), 440 to 650 °C (tempered troostite). An appropriate combination of hardness, toughness, microstructural thermal stability was required for a good wear resistance in high-temperature wear. The optimized heat treatment process was suggested for the cast hot-forging steel to be austenized at 1020 to 1120 °C, quenched in oil, then tempered at 440 to 650 °C for 2 h.