INFLUENCE OF THE THERMAL CONDITION OF STEEL ON THE TRANSFORMATION TEMPERATURES OF TWO CHROMIUM HOT-WORK TOOL STEELS

The influence of the thermal condition of the steel on the transformation temperatures of two chromium hot-work tool steels was investigated. The steels studied were in two different thermal states: the soft -annealed state and the hardened-and-tempered state. The soft-annealed condition, i.e., the fully annealed condition, is a thermal state of steels in which the matrix is ferritic, and the carbon is chemically bonded in spherical carbides. The hardened-and-tempered condition, on the other hand, means a fully hardened-and-tempered martensitic matrix with uniformly distributed (primary and secondary) carbides. The samples were analysed in a simultaneous thermal analyser (STA) using the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method to determine the transformation temperatures. We also performed calculations based on the CALPHAD method to obtain the equilibrium temperatures of the transformations. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of different thermal conditions of chromium hot-work tool steels on the transformation temperatures such as solidus/liquidus temperatures, eutectoid transformation temperatures (A1 and A3), austenite solidification temperature and martensite transformation start temperatures. Since DSC analysis also measures thermal influence, we were able to determine the energies absorbed during eutectoid transformation and melting (endothermic processes) and the energies released during the solidification of δ-ferrite and γ-austenite (exothermic processes), as well as the energies released during martensite transformation. It was found that hardening and tempering reduce both eutectoid transformation temperatures and that the solidification intervals are closer to those calculated. From an energetic point of view, hardening and tempering reduce the energies absorbed during melting.