On the Effect of Heat-Treatment upon Electropolishing of Carbon Steel

Electropolishing of carbon steel has little been used commercially due to the variation in composition and surface condition of heat-treatment. The author, therefore, as fundamental experiment for its industrial application, investigated the polishing effect of various carbon steels which heat-treated under various conditions, observing the anodic current density-bath voltage curves obtained in perchloric acid type, phosphoric acid-oxalic acid type and phosphoric acid-potassium dichromate type bathes. As the exsistance of different potentials between ferrite and cementite deteriorates the polishing effect, the result is the worst for the steel of heterogeous structure such an pearite. The more homogeneous becomes the structure after cheat-treatment like martensite, the more effective is the electropolithing.