Microstructure Development of Bearing Steel during Accelerated Carbide Spheroidisation

Carbide spheroidisation is a significant metallurgical process, which contributes to profound changes in microstructure and mechanical properties. Carbide spheroidising occurs through diffusion, which is a long-term and energy-demanding process. The holding times, sometimes up to tens of hours make soft annealing one of the most expensive heat treatment processes. The process was newly designed at the company COMTES FHT shortens carbide spheroidising several times and therefore delivers considerable time and cost savings. The heat treatment was performed using induction heating. The purpose of this annealing process is to obtain globular carbides uniformly distributed in the matrix and to achieve overall softening. The present paper explores the effect of the newly-designed thermal schedules on the cementite lamellae fragmentation, on the decrease in hardness in bearing steel grade 100CrMnSi6-4 and on processing times.