Effects of heat treatment on deformation characteristics of medium carbon steel

Abstract

The effects of heat treatment on bending deformation, tensile strength and hardness of RST 37 medium carbon steels were investigated. Steel rod samples of ø12 mm diameter, 100 mm length, and % weight composition of 0.39 wt % C, 0.70 wt % Mn and 0.80 wt % Si and traces of alloying elements were tested. The samples were austenitized at 1123 K, annealed, normalized, quenched and tempered. Mechanical tests conducted on the sam-ples were bending, hardness, ultimate tensile strength, % elongation, breaking strength, yield strength, and yield ratio. The results showed that annealed, normalized and tempered samples exhibited high springback, while the hardened samples showed relatively low springback. As the tensile strength or yield strength increased, ductili-ty or total elongation decreased. The hardness was found to decrease with increasing springback.

Journal of Applied Science and Technology Vol. 13 (1 & 2) 2008: pp. 81-85