Influence of the Main Technological Variables of Cyclical Mechanic-Thermal Processing on the Strain Hardening of Steel Parts

Abstract

Abstract:The main objective of the present work was to determine the influence of the most important technological variables of CMTP (cyclical mechanic-thermal processing) on the strain hardening in the surface layers of steel parts. For this, it was designed a full factorial plan at two levels of five independent variables that include the whole processing in two and three cycles, the cold-forming degree and force during the plastic deformation (burnishing), and the temperature and time at the given temperature during the aging. Each cycle is composed of plastic deformation at room temperature plus aging. As dependent variables, the degree and penetration depth of strain hardening were evaluated. Based on the appropriately used set of experimental data, it had been fitted an exponential model for each dependent variables and also a two-degree polynomial fitting of in-depth evolution of microhardness profile was obtained. The amount of cycles and the cold-forming degree are the technological variables of CMTP that influence the most on strain hardening, although other variables also are significant. The microhardness profile highlights that during the CMTP, the strain hardening decreases from the outer bound to the transition zone of the surface layers, where it disappears.