Comparison of the Impact Wear Performances of Quenching and Partitioning and Quenching and Tempering Steels

A low‐carbon, high‐strength steel is treated by different quenching and partitioning (QP) and quenching and tempering (QT) routes in a salt bath furnace, and its wear performance is evaluated by impact abrasive wear tests. It is observed as compared with the traditional QT steel; the QP steel manifests better wear performance at the quenching temperature of 220 °C. Stable film‐like retained austenite (RA) and fine martensite laths improve the wear resistance of the QP steel at the quenching temperature of 220 °C, whereas unstable blocky RA formed in the QP steel at the quenching temperature of 190 °C decrease the wear resistance. In addition, the lower critical impact stress for crack initiation at the higher impact energy decreases the wear resistance; however, the relative wear resistance is improved greatly at the higher impact energy due to the better fracture toughness of the QP steel. Moreover, the correlation of wear loss, hardness, and K IC is modeled to compare the wear resistances of the test steel after different heat treatments.