Effects of two-step austempering processes on the wear resistance and fatigue lifetime of high-carbon nanostructured bainitic steel

The previous research on two-step austempering processes have been mainly focused on the bainitic transformation kinetics, with few details the relationships between the parameters of two-step austempering process and the wear properties and fatigue lifetime. In this paper, the effects of two-step austempering process on wear resistance and fatigue life of high carbon nano-bainite steel were investigated. The results show that the first-step bainite with high volume fraction prolongs the total bainite transformation time. The two-step austempering samples contain finer bainitic ferrite plate and higher volume fraction of retained austenite, as well as resent excellent hardnesses, tensile properties, wear resistance and fatigue lifetime. In particular, the wear resistance of the 50%-290 °C sample is better than that of the 210 °C sample, this is caused by the transformation of the high fraction of retained austenite in the two-step austempering samples into hard martensite and the microstructure refinement zone that forms on the surface of the sample during the wear process. The 50%-290 °C sample have better fatigue properties at low total strain amplitudes (0.7% and 0.8%). When the total strain amplitude is 0.7%, the fatigue life of the 50%-290 °C sample is 57.5% higher than that of the 210 °C sample, which is because of the higher yield strength and finer microstructure of the 50%-290 °C sample. These results support the later study of controlling two-step austempering process for high-carbon nanostructured steels.