Cracking generates usually due to the internal stress during martensitic transformation in high carbon steels, for instance the ‘1C–1.5Cr’ bearing steels. A novel low-density ‘1.2C–1.5Cr–5Al’ alloy has been designed recently for bearing application in previous research. The effect of morphology of martensite plates on the transformation cracking has been proposed and investigated in comparison between the ‘1.2C–1.5Cr–5Al’ and ‘1C–1.5Cr’ steels in this research. Based on the mechanisms proposed, the tendency for transformation cracking in the novel alloy with more carbon addition has been discussed compared with the ‘1C–1.5Cr’ steel. This paper is part of a Themed Issue on Recent developments in bearing steels.
A novel alloy design, designated as 1·2C–1·5Cr–5Al, has been proposed with high aluminium(∼5 wt-) and more carbon(∼1·2 wt-) addition into the classical 1C–1·5Cr bearing steel for lowering density and improving performance simultaneously, which is approximate 8 wt- lighter than convention. In order to understand preliminarily the suitability of the novel alloy for bearing application, the martensite starting temperature and hardness, related to microstructure evolution and mechanical properties, respectively, after partial austenitisation treatment with undissolved carbides have been investigated carefully. The martensite starting temperature is comparable with conventional 1C–1·5Cr alloy. The hardness of 860±3 HV20 achieved is much higher than convention.
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