Therefore, the influence of aluminum on certain properties of high-speed steels is similar to the influence of cobalt.

The results of production and laboratory tests of the cutting properties of tools of
the steels developed showed their high effectiveness, especially of IIMbF steel with 1% AI.
The life of tools of the tungsten-free steels is two or three times greater than the life of
tools of R6M~ steel.

SYNCHRONOUS HEAT-TREATMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR

HIGH-SPEED STEEL TOOLS
E. A. Smol'nikov and V. A. Markina

UDC 621.78:621.9.02:669.14.018.252

In the mass production of high-speed steel tools great difficulties ere caused by the
difference between the time of holding and of hardening and repeated tempering. For instance,
the total time of holding in salt baths ~tot (the total time the tools remain in salt solution) and the equal time for each stage of hardening (preheating, final heating, and stepwise
cooling) for drills with 6 to 50 mm diameter varies between 2 and 4.5 min, and in case of
standard tempering at 560C in furnaces or baths, holding in each tempering alone (not counting the time of heating) amounts to 1 h; this usually makes it necessary to use separate
equipment and fixtures for hardening and tempering. This,l in turn, requires the introduction
of additional operations of transporting the tools and stacking them in large tempering cages
where the tools are heated nonuniformly, in consequence their quality is impaired, and in addition this procedure entails unjustified consumption of electric power and lengthy dwelling
of the tools at the tempering operation. Brief double tempering of tools at 580 or 600C,
described in [I], made it possible to reduce holding time to 20-30 and 10-15 min, respectively. However, such tempering conditions did not solve the problem.
For tools of steels R6M5, R6M5K5, R9M4K8 hardened under standard conditions, holding in
tempering may be reduced to 4"6 min by raising the tempering temperature to 630C, or to
7-8 min by reducing the tempering temperature to 615C without impairing the mechanical
properties [2, 3]. Tests showed that tool life at the same time increased by a factor of
1.2-1.3.*
As a result of this research the holding times in the salt baths in hardening and tempering of the same tool became so close to each other than it became obviously possible to
make them equal to each other.
On this basis we worked out a technology of synchronous heat treatment enabling all
stages of the operations of hardening and tempering to be carried out on the same plant or
the same production line suitable for a fairly broad assortment of high-speed steel tools.
To carry out shorter tempering at 615, 630C, or even at higher temperatures without
risking reduced hardness of the tools and for extending their life in operation, it was necessary to increase the degree of alloying of the solid solution; this was attained by extending
the holding time ~tot in heating prior to quenching or by some increase of the hardening temperature.
In our investigation we increased the holding in heating prior to hardening Ttot, determined by the well-known formula [3] Ttot = Tbp + Tdc , by increasing the standardized time of
dissolving carbides rde by a factor of 1.5-5 since the time of bulk preheating Tbp did not
change.
The tests were first carried out with specimens 6 x 6 x 60 and i0 x I0 x 55 ram of steel
R6M5 and R6MbK5, and then with tools.

*It may be assumed that it remains at the p~evious level (Editor's note).
All-Union Tool Research Institute. Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya
Obrabotka Metallov, No. 8, pp. 26-28, August, 1984.
0026-0673/85/0708-0587509.50

1986 Plenum Publishing Corporation

587

rt0
~ n~n
12F-7J~ 56d

6g

6JO 5~0 650 t,C

6g ~0 6006~ ~,C

Fig. 1. Diagram f o r determining equal holding times (Tto t) in salt baths for hardening
and tempering of high-speed steels R6M5 and
R6M5K5 in regimes of synchronous heat treatment: a, b) quenching at 1220 and 1235C,
respectively; I) zone of preferable hardening
and tempering regimes; II) zone of reduced
hardness after tempering; III) zone of insufficient tempering.
The specimens were quenched at 1220 or !235C with stepped cooling to 630C, and then
they were subjected to two- or threefold tempering at 615, 630, 640, 650, 660, and 670C
with equal holding times for both operations~ viz., between 1.5 and 15 min.
Then we plotted the curves for steel R6M5 on the basis of the specified grain size of
the austenite after hardening (not larger than No. 9) and also of hardness (~HRC 63), bending strength (Oh ~ 3300 MPa), impact toughness (a ~ 0.3 MJ/m2), and heat resistance evaluated according to hardness after additional 4-h heating at 620aC, and on condition of choosing regimes ensuring absence of residual austenite after tempering (Fig. i).
These graphs make it possible to determine equal holding times in heating prior to
hardening and in tempering of the mentioned specimens, ensuring that the specified structure
and properties of the selected steels will be attained.
The possible regions of equal holding in salt baths in hardening and tempering, presented
in Fig. i, are limited from above by the fact that, firstly, excessively long holding or excessively high quenching temperatures cause intense grain growth and in consequence reduced
strength and impact toughness after tempering~ and secondly, that longer holding times in
tempering than in Fig. i lead to reduced hardness.
The lower graphs in Fig. i bound the region III of insufficient tempering.
For steel R6MSK5 an analogous graph has the same shape, in principle (see Fig. i), kut
in plotting it we used the following characteristics: HRC ~ 64; ~b ~ 3000 MPa; a = 0.25
MJ/m ~ .
Comparative tests of tool life showed that the life of cutter bits 7 8 2.5 mm in
size~ of steel RI4F4, after synchronous heat treatment was 1.3-1.8 times longer than after
heat treatment by the conventional technology.
With the aid of the graphs in Fig. 1 and the data of [2] we find that for drills with 6,
i0, 20, and 30 mm diameter in hardening at 1220C and tempering at 630C the holding times
are 4, 5, 6, and 7 min, respectively, and in hardening at 1235C and tempering at 640~C 3,
4, 5, and 6 min, respectively.
The synchronous heat treatment devised by us and characterized by equal holding times
in hardening and tempering is applicable to all high-speed steels and may he used on semiautomatic plant and production lines, including those that provide, in addition to hardening and tempering, for operations of washing the tools and of removingsalts from them.
Here, the time of final cooling in hardening and each tempering may be taken as a multiple
of the holding time in heating, or it may be reduced to the same length by cooling with compressed air or by water--air mixtures.

588

The application of synchronous heat treatment makes it possible to attain a higher level
of mechanization in hardening and tempering cutting tools, to shorten the cycle of heat
t r e a t m e n t and to ensure large savings by reducing laboriousnessj saving materials and electric power, and by improving the quality of the tools.
Application of the new technology is efficient both in series and in individual production of tools.
The temperature of shortened tempering ttem (C) in synchronous heat treatment of all
other high-speed steels can be approximately determined by our empirical formula

~em=600+(8...12) V-ff(1...~ Co,

where V and Co are the contents of vanadium and cobalt, respectively, in %.
LITERATURE CITED
I.
2.
3.

A . P . Gulyaev, K. A. Malinina~ and S. M. Saverina, Tool Steels (Handbook) [in Russian],

Mashgiz, Moscow (1961).
E . A . Smol'nikov and V. V. Umanets, "Shortened tempering of high-speed steels R6M5,
R6M5K5, and R9M4K8," Metalloved. Term. Obrab. Met., No. 2, 11-15 (1980).
Technological Instructions "Heat Treatment of Metal Cutting Tools for Conditions of
Automated Production" [in Russian], VNIIinstrument (1982).

EFFECT OF THERMAL CYCLING ON THE MECHANICAL

PROPERTIES OF STEEL 20Kh
Yu. A. Bashnin, L. A. Lisitskaya,
L. M. Semenova, and A. V. Pozharskii

UDC 621.78:620.18:669.14.018.29

Steel 20 is used as material of many important tractor components subjected to nitriding

with subsequent hardening and low tempering. In recent years the process of nitriding was
greatly improved: a technology of preliminary heat treatment was worked out as well as controlled atmosphere on the basis of endogas, making it possible to improve the quality and extend the life of components. However, the time required for the process remained as before.
In addition, a substantial shortcoming of this process was the increased grain size of the
core of the components; this impaired their mechanical properties and often caused breakage
of gear wheels in operation.
To obtain finer grain size of the core, regimes of preliminary heat treatment [i] were
devised but they are effective only with high alloy steels. For the same purpose thermal
cycling is used either before or after thermochemical treatment (TCT) [2].
By thermal cycling, austenite grain is refined to No. II-12 within five to seven cycles.
A characteristic feature of the known methods of thermal cycling is the application of accelerated heating (at the rate of approximately i00 deg/min); this makes it difficult to use
thermal cycling in the process of TCT, e.g., in nitriding. We devised a method of thermal
cycling that causes refinement of the austenite grains both in the surface layer and in the
core of components in the process of TCT itself~ and when the required rate of diffusion
saturation is attained, the method makes it possible to shorten the duration of the process
by~eliminating the necessity of repeated heating prior to quenching and to improve the required complex of properties. It was shown [3] that nitriding using thermal cycling (heating rate 3-4 deg/min to 880C, cooling at the same rate to the temperature ensuring full
phase recrystal!ization) makes it possible within four or five cycles to reduce the grain
size of the austenite considerably (to No. ii), to increase fatigue strength, and more than
double the impact toughness of components made of steel 20Kh compared with the conventional
method of TCT.
Moscow Higher Institute of Metallurgy (MVMI). All-Union Research Institute of Engineering (VNIITMASh).
Translated from Metallovedenie i Termicheskaya Obrabotka Metal!ov, No. 8,
pp. 28-30, August, 1985.

0026-0673/85/0708-0589509.50

1986 Plenum Publishing Corporation

589