In this article, the importance of selecting the right process parameters for ledeburitic tool steels, i.e., casting temperature, cooling rate, and soaking temperature, which is needed to improve their intrinsic hot workability, is presented. The results were obtained from investigations in industrial practice and in the laboratory. It was found that inappropriate selection of these process parameters results in the occurrence of carbides that are not usually present in these types of steels, in terms of type, shape, fractions, and their distribution that decreases the steels' hot workability. In particular, a casting temperature that is too high and cooling rates that are too low result in the additional precipitation of carbides, which are not common in these steels, leading to cracking, predominately along these carbide stringers and consequently to a deterioration of the hot workability and the properties of the final products. It was also found that by selecting the proper soaking conditions, it is possible to decrease the negative influence of previous processing parameters on the hot workability.
We have studied the transformation of carbides in AISI M42 high-speed steels in the temperature window used for forging. The annealing was found to result in the partial transformation of the large, metastable M2C carbides into small, more stable grains of M6C, with an associated change in the crystal orientation. In addition, MC carbides form during the transformation of M2C to M6C. From the high-speed-steel production point of view, it is beneficial to have large, metastable carbides in the cast structure, which later during annealing, before the forging, transform into a structure of polycrystalline carbides. Such carbides can be easily decomposed into several small carbides, which are then randomly distributed in the microstructure. The results also show an interesting difference in the carbide-transformation reactions on the surface versus the bulk of the alloy, which has implications for in-situ studies of bulk phenomena that are based on surface observations.
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