MORPHOLOGY OF STEEL C45E MICROSTRUCTURE DURING UPSETTING

Entirely understanding of all factors and mechanisms which influence nucleation and accumulation of ultimate level of material failure is necessary for adequate choice of material and rational projecting of metal forming technological procedure. The first step in research refers to the morphology characterization of material micro constituents during processing. This paper contains qualitative-quantitative analysis of morphology changes of ferrite and colonies of pearlite in the steel C45E microstructure during upsetting of cylindrical specimen with flat dies. Relative microforming level of ferrite grains was determined based on direct measurements, while indirect way has been suggested for determination of pearlite colonies forming ability. The approach is based on monitoring of area fraction changes of pearlite colonies in relation to area fraction of ferrite basis during upsetting process. The results of SEM testing have shown that ferrite grains and pearlite colonies are formed unequally.