Effect of boron concentration on solidification structure and hardness of Fe–B–C wear‐resistant alloy

Fe–B–C wear‐resistant alloy, as a new type of iron‐based wear‐resistant materials, has drawn extensive attention of the researchers in materials at home and abroad. The boron concentration plays an important role in the microstructure and mechanical properties of Fe–B–C wear‐resistant alloy. In this paper, the solidification microstructure, volume fraction of eutectic, macro and micro hardness of Fe–B–C alloy are researched. The samples are measured by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Rockwell‐hardness tester, Vickers‐hardness tester. Image processing software such as image‐pro and photoshop are used. The content of boron in experiment alloys are 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% and 3.0% respectively. As a result, the solidification microstructure of as‐cast Fe–B–C mainly consists of metallic matrix and eutectic structure. The eutectic phase is continuous netlike distribution along the grain boundary. As boron concentration increases, the volume fraction of borocarbide increases in the matrix, and the size is larger. The hardness of Fe–B–C also has a tendency to rise with the increase of boron concentration.     

Effect of aluminum content on solidification microstructure and properties of Fe‐Cr‐B‐Al alloys

The microstructures and mechanical properties of eight kinds of Fe‐Cr‐B‐Al alloys containing X wt.%Al‐0.35 wt.%C‐10.0 wt.%Cr‐1.4 wt.%B‐0.6 wt.%Si‐0.8 wt.%Mn (X = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 4.0) were studied by means of optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Rockwell hardness and Vickers micro‐hardness testers. The results indicate that the as‐cast microstructure of aluminium‐free sample consists of the martensite, austenite and eutectic borocarbides, and the eutectic borocarbides are the mixture of (Fe, Cr)₂B and (Cr, Fe)₇(C, B)₃, and its hardness reaches 65 HRC. When a small amount of aluminium element (Al ? 1.0 wt.%) is added, the phase composition has no significant change, and the hardness excels 65 HRC. When the concentration of aluminium reaches 1.5 wt.%, the matrix of Fe‐Cr‐B‐Al alloy becomes pearlite and δ‐ferrite, leading to a sharply decrease of the hardness. The proportion of ferrite goes up along with increasing aluminium concentration, and the hardness of Fe‐Cr‐B‐Al alloy has slight decrease.     

Verschleißbeständige Fe‐Basislegierungen mit Niobkarbid

Wear Resistant Fe‐Base Alloys with Niobium Carbide Martensitic Fe‐base alloys from the system Fe‐Cr‐C are widely used as chilled cast irons and tool steels. Because of the low hardness of their FeCr‐carbides this paper reports about new alloys with primarily solidified harder niobium carbides. It focuses on a secondary hardenable welding alloy, a coating material for composite castings, a chilled casting and a corrosion resistant cold work tool steel, which are investigated with respect to their process related microstructure and abrasive wear behaviour.     

Investigation of Non‐Linear Springback for High Strength Steel Sheets by ESPI

Abstract: The springback of the sheet metals after large deformations during deep drawing is not a strongly linear process with a constant Young’s modulus, but the stress–strain behaviour during the unloading phases shows considerably non‐linear and inelastic effects. Unloading of two types of steel sheets for cold forming, a cold‐rolled high‐strength microalloyed steel and a low‐carbon steel sheet, has been analysed using the method of electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI). The specimens were investigated by uniaxial tension tests, and the influences of different testing parameters upon springback were analysed. The experimental measurements showed that the stress–strain curve during unloading is non‐linear, the influence of the prestrain path upon unloading is minor, and the secant moduli of unloading curves decrease with increasing prestrain. When the prestrain value becomes high enough, a saturated value for the secant modulus is approached. An empirical relation was found to describe the changes in the unloading modulus in accordance with the prestrain value.     

High‐Strength Nanotwinned Al Alloys with 9R Phase

Light‐weight aluminum (Al) alloys have widespread applications. However, most Al alloys have inherently low mechanical strength. Nanotwins can induce high strength and ductility in metallic materials. Yet, introducing high‐density growth twins into Al remains difficult due to its ultrahigh stacking‐fault energy. In this study, it is shown that incorporating merely several atomic percent of Fe solutes into Al enables the formation of nanotwinned (nt) columnar grains with high‐density 9R phase in Al(Fe) solid solutions. The nt Al–Fe alloy coatings reach a maximum hardness of ≈5.5 GPa, one of the strongest binary Al alloys ever created. In situ uniaxial compressions show that the nt Al–Fe alloys populated with 9R phase have flow stress exceeding 1.5 GPa, comparable to high‐strength steels. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that high strength and hardening ability of Al–Fe alloys arise mainly from the high‐density 9R phase and nanoscale grain sizes.     

Effect of boron concentration on the solidification microstructure and properties of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy

In this article, the effect of boron concentration (B = 0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.4 and 2.0 respectively) on the solidification microstructure and properties of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy containing 0.35% C, 10–12% Cr, 0.5–0.8% Si, and 0.7–1.0% Mn was studied by means of the optical microscope (OM), the scanning electron microscope (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Rockwell hardness and Vickers hardness tester. The results indicate that the microstructure of boron‐free sample consists of the martensite, and its hardness reaches 59.2 HRC. When a small amount of boron element was added, the eutectic phase of network structure generated along the grain boundary. The amount of eutectic phase increases when the boron concentration increases. Moreover, the eutectic phase is the mixture of boride and boron carbide. The boride is Fe₂B and the boron carbide is (Cr, Fe)₇(C, B)₃. Compared with boron‐free sample, the Rockwell hardness of the samples with different boron concentrations are all higher, above 62 HRC, and the hardness grow up with the increase of boron concentration. When the boron concentration reaches to 1.4%, the Rockwell hardness of the alloy is 65.7 HRC, which is the highest in this study. When the boron concentration rises to 2.0%, the hardness has no obvious change.     

Yield Point of Iron Materials in Dependence of Lattice Binding and Microstructure

Ferritic/perlitic iron materials with ∼ 0.35% C and alloying elements of the groups III A/B to VIII of the Periodic Table (PT) showed that values of the yield point, measured statically by tension tests, do not only depend on the kind of alloying element or its content, but that they also depend on the microstructure (grain size and phase arrangement of the second phase M₃C) in polycrystals. In the same way that the minimum of lattice binding between two neighbouring atoms (or ions) of the same kind is at half distance between them and corresponds to the equilibrium, we can find the yield point of polycrystals at distinct grain sizes (after thermal treatment) as well. The yield point behaves like the Young modulus, which is an expression of lattice binding. It should be noted that added alloying elements can accelerate the grain growth, but there are also cases where these elements cause hindrance. To raise the yield point the non‐equilibrium states on both sides of the determined minimum of yield point should be used, which depends on the grain size (and heat‐treatment conditions). This is especially meaningful for the employment of steel sheets in the car industry.     

Microstructure,Phase Composition,and Thermal Stability of Two Zirconium Alloys Subjected to High‐Pressure Torsion at Different Temperatures

The structure, phase composition, and thermal stability of the industrial zirconium alloys, namely, E110 (Zr–1% Nb) and E635 (Zr–1% Nb–0.3% Fe–1.2% Sn), which are subjected to high‐pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature (RT), 200, and 400 °С have been studied. HPT of Zr‐alloys at RT (10 revolutions) leads to the formation of grain–subgrain nano‐sized structure and to increase the microhardness by 2.1…2.8 times. The increase in the HPT temperature to 200–400 °С leads to the increase in the structural‐element average size. The structural‐element size in the complexly alloyed E635 alloy in all cases is lower compared with the E110 alloy. The hardening of the alloys after HPT at RT and 200 °С is close, and at 400 °С is much less. HPT initiates the α‐Zr → (ω‐Zr + β‐Zr) transformation, which is the main factor for alloys hardening. The α‐Zr → (ω‐Zr + β‐Zr) transformation in the E635 alloy occurs less quickly. The maximum amount (ω‐Zr + β‐Zr) phase in the structure of the alloys is observed after HPT at RT and 200 °C, and the minimum ? at 400 °C. During heating, the alloys undergo the reverse (ω‐Zr + β‐Zr) → α transformation which depends on both the alloy composition and HPT temperature.

     

Mechanical Properties of an Fe‐Based SAM2×5‐630 Metallic Glass Matrix Composite with Tungsten Particle Additions

We present the role of tungsten additions on the mechanical properties of a Fe‐based structural amorphous metal (SAM2×5‐630) containing crystalline tungsten. Matrix cracking by microindentation is inhibited by the addition of tungsten and indicates that tungsten improves the fracture toughness. Response surfaces from nanoindentation arrays indicate that the hardness and modulus of the matrix phase are increased by tungsten additions. Bulk composites with 30 vol% tungsten subjected to 4‐point flexure exhibited brittle fracture behavior and the characteristic strength and Weibull modulus were 165 and 8.7 MPa, respectively. The addition of tungsten did not cause devitrification of the matrix phase.     

Microstructure and elevated temperature mechanical properties of Al–8Fe–4RE alloy fabricated by spray forming

Al–8Fe–4Ce alloy is currently manufactured by consolidating the atomized powders. With the aim to reduce the cost, spray forming process was applied in manufacturing with misch metal as raw materials. Spray forming (SF) as well as casting were employed to prepare Al–8Fe–4RE alloy, followed by hot‐press to compact the samples. The mechanical properties of SFed and cast Al–8Fe–4RE alloys are characterized at a temperature of 350 °C. The results show that the Al₃Fe phases contained in SF alloy is comparatively refined, forming needle‐shaped phases embedded in the Al matrix, and the SF alloy also showed lower degree of preferred orientation in (111) plane. Although both factors might explain the superior performance of the SF sample, the fracture appearance after tensile test at 350 °C shows that the contribution from crystallographic feature might be predominant. Spray forming is proved to be a very promising technique for manufacture of Al–Fe–Ce alloys of high strength at an elevated temperature.     

Neu entwickelte TiAl‐Basislegierungen für den Leichtbau von Triebwerks‐ und Motorkomponenten – Eigenschaften,Herstellung, Anwendung

Newly Developed TiAl Base Alloys for Lightweight Components in Jet Engines and Internal Combustion Engines – Properties, Production, Application Titanium aluminides are a most promising high temperature materials alternative to conventional heat‐resistant steels and superalloys for high‐performance automotive and aircraft engine applications. Intermetallic TiAl base alloys offer striking advantages for high temperature and mechanical loading applications. The specific weight of about 3.8 ‐ 4.1 g/ccm is low, the oxidation and burn resistance at temperatures up to 800 °C are good. The elastic stiffness is high and the temperature strength is enhanced. Feasible applications in combustion engines are valves, pistons and exhaust gas turbocharger rotors. Blades, vanes and discs for jet engines are under development, as well. Due to the extraordinary high specific Young’s modulus (ca. 46 GPa ccm/g) and 0.2 %‐yield strength up to 1 GPa of the TiAl base alloys in the as‐extruded state some applications at lower temperatures have also been taken into consideration, e.g. connecting rods and piston pins. The paper reviews constitutional related properties of the advanced TiAl base alloys with the respect to the industrial manufacturing of components and structural applications.     

Plastic deformation of Fe–Al polycrystals strengthened with Zr-containing Laves phases: I. Microstructure of undeformed materials

The microstructures of several Fe-rich Fe–Al–Zr alloys have been studied as a basis of investigating the mechanical behaviour, which is subject of Part II. The alloys with only low Zr contents show microstructures with a relatively soft matrix and a hard skeleton along the grain boundaries, the latter being residual eutectics containing the matrix phase and the Zr(Fe,Al)₂ Laves phase. Scanning electron microscopy, orientation imaging microscopy as well as transmission electron microscopy and diffraction are used to study the grain sizes, the orientation relationships between the grains and the phases and the crystallography of the Laves phase. With higher Zr contents above about 10 at.%, the matrix is formed by the Zr(Fe,Al)₂ Laves phase.     

Phase transformations in nanocrystalline alloys synthesized by mechanical alloying

The effect of nanometer grain size and extensive grain boundary regions in nanocrystalline alloy systems was investigated for the chemical order-disorder, structural, precipitation, and spinodal phase transformations. The kinetic paths for approach to the chemically ordered phase from the disordered phase in FeCo-Mo alloys were observed to be the same at different temperatures due to grain boundaries acting as short-circuited diffusion paths for atom movements. The structure of Fe₃Ge was bcc for small crystallite size and the equilibrium fcc phase developed only after a critical grain size was attained. This was understood as a manifestation of the Gibbs Thomson effect. The precipitation phase transformation in Fe-Mo alloys proceeded by a rapid movement and clustering of the Mo atoms to the grain boundaries that was correlated to the size of the nano grains, and subsequent formation of the Mo rich lambda phase directly in the grain boundary regions. The composition fluctuation domains for spinodal decomposition in nanophase Fe-Cr alloys were observed to be linearly correlated to the growth of grains.     

Interface interaction in the B4C/(Fe–B–C) system

The wetting behavior in the B₄C/(Fe–C–B) system was investigated in order to clarify the role of Fe additions on the sinterability of B₄C. Iron and its alloys with C and B react with the boron carbide substrate and form a reaction zone consisting of a fine mixture of FeB and graphite. The apparent contact angles are relatively low for the alloys with a moderate concentration of the boron and carbon and allow liquid phase sintering to occur in the B₄C–Fe mixtures. A dilatometric study of the sintering kinetics confirms that liquid phase sintering actually takes place and leads to improved mass transfer. A thermodynamic analysis of the ternary Fe–B–C system allows accounting for the experimental observations.     

Cover Picture: Ductile‐to‐Brittle Transition in Nanocrystalline Metals (Adv. Mater. 16/2005)

Uniaxial tensile studies concerning electrodeposited nanocrystalline face‐centered cubic Ni and Ni–Fe alloys are reported on p. 1969 by Ebrahimi and Li. The nanograined metals display a transition in the deformation mechanism at a critical grain size. The cover shows that their fracture surfaces exhibited a ductile‐to‐brittle transition from the “cup–cup” (intragranular, ductile failure, dislocation controlled) (top panels) to “cup–cone” (intergranular, brittle fracture, probably due to breaking of atomic bonds) (bottom panels) characteristics at room temperature across this critical grain size value.     

A hybrid arc spray forming technique for the manufacture of nickel superalloy IN617

Spray forming produces cast microstructures with comparatively low macro‐ and micro‐structural chemical segregation and is thus well‐suited for the manufacture of complex chemistry, multi‐component alloys that otherwise show strong elemental segregation. Although spray formed Ni superalloys have shown properties equivalent or superior to their conventionally cast/wrought counterparts, they have not been adopted commercially because of the difficulties in ensuring a high process yield and the complexity and associated cost of large‐scale Ni superalloy melting. In this paper, we describe a hybrid arc spray forming (HASF) process in which costly, large‐scale alloy melting as pre‐cursor to spray forming is avoided by the use of a consumable wire feedstock. To achieve thermal conditions of melt spray forming – essential to produce a refined, polygonal grain structure – a customised secondary atomisation system has been developed. Fe‐0.8 wt%C and Ni superalloy IN617 microstructures and preliminary mechanical properties suggested that hybrid arc spray forming may offer an attractive combination of convenience, low cost and mechanical performance.     

Effect of heat treatment on microstructure and property of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy

In this article, the effect of heat treatment in different quenching temperature on microstructure and hardness of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy was studied, by contrast with boron‐free Fe‐Cr alloy. The results indicated that microstructure of boron‐free Fe‐Cr alloy consisted of the martensite and a few (Cr, Fe)₇C₃ type carbide. The microstructures had no obvious change with the increase of quenching temperature, but its hardness increased from 51.5 HRC to 60.8 HRC. When boron element was added into the Fe‐Cr alloy, the netlike eutectic structure began to break and spheroidizing after quenching, in which the borocarbide turned into spherical groups and network Fe₂B phase was broken. Moreover, the portion of martensite increased, and the amount of secondary carbide decreased, and the size of secondary carbide began to largen after quenching. When the quenching temperature reached 1100°C, secondary carbide particles dissolved in the matrix wholly. The hardness of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy increased with the increase of quenching temperature below 1050°C. The hardness of sample containing 2.0% B and quenching at 1050°C reached 66.7 HRC. The hardness of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy had no obvious change when quenching temperature continued to increase. After tempered at 200°C, the microstructure of Fe‐Cr‐B alloy had no significant change and its hardness had slight decrease. The hardness of sample containing 2.0% B tempered at 200°C reached 63.9 HRC.     

Atomic‐Level Fe‐N‐C Coupled with Fe3C‐Fe Nanocomposites in Carbon Matrixes as High‐Efficiency Bifunctional Oxygen Catalysts

Highly active and durable bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts are of pivotal importance for clean and renewable energy conversion devices, but the lack of earth‐abundant electrocatalysts to improve the intrinsic sluggish kinetic process of oxygen reduction/evolution reactions (ORR/OER) is still a challenge. Fe‐N‐C catalysts with abundant natural merits are considered as promising alternatives to noble‐based catalysts, yet further improvements are urgently needed because of their poor stability and unclear catalytic mechanism. Here, an atomic‐level Fe‐N‐C electrocatalyst coupled with low crystalline Fe₃C‐Fe nanocomposite in 3D carbon matrix (Fe‐SAs/Fe₃C‐Fe@NC) is fabricated by a facile and scalable method. Versus atomically FeN_x species and crystallized Fe₃C‐Fe nanoparticles, Fe‐SAs/Fe₃C‐Fe@NC catalyst, abundant in vertical branched carbon nanotubes decorated on intertwined carbon nanofibers, exhibits high electrocatalytic activities and excellent stabilities both in ORR (E_1/2, 0.927 V) and OER (E_J=10, 1.57 V). This performance benefits from the strong synergistic effects of multicomponents and the unique structural advantages. In‐depth X‐ray absorption fine structure analysis and density functional theory calculation further demonstrate that more extra charges derived from modified Fe clusters decisively promote the ORR/OER performance for atomically FeN₄ configurations by enhanced oxygen adsorption energy. These insightful findings inspire new perspectives for the rational design and synthesis of economical–practical bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts.     

Hot deformation behavior and processing map of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel

The hot deformation behavior of a Fe‐25Ni‐16Cr‐3Al alumina‐forming austenitic steel was studied by hot compression using a Gleeble‐3500 thermal simulator. The compression tests were carried out in the temperatures range from 925 °C to 1175 °C and strain rates range from 0.01 s^‐1 to 10 s^‐1. It was concluded that the flow stress increased with decreasing deformation temperature and increasing strain rate. The constitutive equation was obtained and the activation energy was 420.98 kJ?mol^‐1 according to the testing data. According to the achieved processing map, the optimal processing domain is determined in the temperatures range of 1050 °C – 1075 °C and strain rates range of 0.03 s^‐1 ‐ 0.3 s^‐1. The evolution of microstructure characterization is consistent with the rules predicted by the processing map. During compression at the same temperature, the higher the strain rate is, the higher the hardness will be. The ultimate tensile strength of the steel is 779 MPa with a total elongation of 27.1 % at room temperature.     

Influence of powder loading on densification and microstructure of injection molded Fe‐50Ni soft magnetic alloys

Metal injection molding (MIM) is a well‐known technique capable to produce micro size electromagnetic components with intricate shape features. Powder loading is a crucial parameter in the metal injection molding process which controls the densification and microstructure of the sintered parts. The lower powder loading leads to various defects and lower densification whereas higher loading results in failure of parts during injection molding. Therefore, it is important to engineer an appropriate powder loading to achieve defect‐free parts along with higher densification and improved microstructure. In this contest, three feedstocks of Fe‐50Ni alloys are prepared with powder loadings of 52 vol.%, 54 vol.% and 57 vol.% and injection molded. After debinding, the parts are sintered at 1325 °C for 2 h. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of powder loading on injection molding, densification, and microstructure. In addition, scanning electron microscopy and x‐ray diffraction analysis are performed during the study. The defect‐free green parts are produced successfully from the 52 % and 54 % loading. It has been found that the optimal powder loading of 54 % is the best from the perspective of enhanced densification and improved microstructure to assure the quality parts of Fe‐50Ni alloys via metal injection molding.