Microstructural Analysis of Powder Metallurgy Tool Steels in the Context of Abrasive Wear Behavior: A New Computerized Approach to Stereology

Abstract

The present work describes a new methodology designed to characterize the microstructures of tool steels containing carbide hard phases, with the focus set on their abrasive wear resistance. A series of algorithms were designed and implemented in MATLABÒ to (i) recognize each of the features of interest, (ii) measure relevant quantities and (iii) characterize each of the phases and the alloy in function of attributes usually neglected in wear description applications: size distribution, shape and contiguity of the hard phases. The new framework incorporates new parameters to describe each one of these attributes, as observed in SEM micrographs. All three aforementioned stages contain novel contributions that can be potentially beneficial to the field of materials design in general and to the field of alloy design for severely abrasive environments in particular. Models of known geometry and micrographs of different powder metallurgy steels were analyzed, and the obtained results were compared with the obtained by the linear intercept method. The relation between the new parameters and the ones available in the scientific literature is also discussed.

Short‐Term Heat Treatment of the High‐Alloy Cold‐Work Tool Steel X153CrMoV12: Calculation of Metastable Microstructural States

“…The quantitative image analysis was performed in MATLAB in a custom program developed by Benito et al [ 8 ] The two‐step semiautomatic segmentation consisted of graylevel and feature size thresholding. Each detected phase was then characterized in terms of their content, individual feature size, and shape.…”

Influence of Hot Hardness and Microstructure of High‐Alloyed Powder Metallurgical Tool Steels on Abrasive Wear Behavior at Elevated Temperatures

“…Sample preparation also consisted of grinding and polishing down to 1 μm with diamond suspension, but no etching was performed. Quantification was performed on binarized and segmented images following the image analysis procedure detailed in the work of Benito et al…”

“…Subsequently, the same samples were reinstalled for two further test intervals, and the procedure was repeated. The wear mechanism of the worn surfaces was identified by means of SEM after a total test period of 12 h. In addition, the coverage of the surface by abrasives on a representative area (total area: 3.69 mm 2 per sample) was measured using the quantitative image analysis method described in the work of Benito et al The samples and the particle bed were changed and renewed between each test temperature. All test parameters are shown in Table .…”

Novel Development of an NbC‐Containing Powder‐Metallurgical Martensitic Steel with Outstanding Tribocorrosion Resistance

“…The images were analyzed in MATLAB using a software program developed by S. Benito. [18] In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to examine the generated wear tracks. A confocal laser scanning microscope was used to determine the wear track depth and the wear volume within the wear track.…”