Crack Propagation Behavior of Impact Fracture in Case Hardening Steel Subjected to Combined Heat Treatment with Excess Vacuum Carburizing and Subsequent Induction Hardening

The Charpy impact value of case hardening steel subjected to combined heat treatment with excess vacuum carburizing and subsequent induction hardening was evaluated. The purpose of this study is to clarify the relation between the crack propagation behavior and the microstructure in steels having different amounts of retained austenite and cementite. The vacuum carburizing treatment is performed at the hyper-eutectoid composition of 1.3 mass% C. Three different heating temperatures were chosen for induction hardening in the two-phase (austenite, cementite) region between Acm and A1 to obtain different amounts of retained austenite and cementite. Decreasing the induction heating temperature from 1143 K to 1043 K, increased crack propagation resistance by around 30% on average in both the quenched-only and the quenched-and-tempered specimens. The high crack propagation resistance of the samples with the low induction heating temperature was caused by the arrest effect of undissolved θ. By contrast, in the sub-zero treated specimens, crack propagation resistance showed an almost constant value irrespective of the induction heating temperature. That constant propagation resistance was attributed to the repeated bending and branching occurring during crack propagation.