Effect of magnesium addition on microstructure and mechanical properties in wheel steel

In order to reveal the effect of Mg in low carbon microalloy steel, low carbon microalloy steel of HR60 wheel steel was smelted in vacuum induction furnace and industrial field respectively. The characteristics of typical non- metallic inclusions and microstructure of experimental steels were both compared by OM, SEM- EDS and INCA Feature with automatically scanning inclusions function. The mechanical properties of the experimental steels were also measured. The results show that alumina inclusions are modified to spinel inclusions with small size after Mg addition. Furthermore, acicular ferrite can be induced effectively by inclusions containing magnesium. The microstructures of experimental steels are changed from ??polygonal ferrite(PF) + pearlite(P)??to ??polygonal ferrite(PF) + degenerate pearlite(DP) + acicular ferrite(AF)?? and refined by Mg treatment. The strength of experimental steels is improved with Mg addition. In industrial experiments, the fatigue limit of Mg- treated steels is greater than 460MPa, while the fatigue limit of Ca- treated steels is about 450MPa. In addition, the fatigue life of Mg- treated steels is generally higher than that of Ca- treated steels under the condition that the stress is greater than the fatigue limit. In laboratory experiments, the contents of Nb and Ti are reduced while Mg content in steel is 18??10-6, the strength of the wheel steel is close to the reference steel. Therefore, the project to reducing production cost by taking advantage of the microalloy role of Mg is feasible.