Purpose: of this paper: This paper completes the knowledge concerning the mechanisms of destabilization and
properties of retained austenite. Investigations were performed on 120MnCrMoV8-6-4-2 steel, which was designed in 1998, in Phase Transformations Research Group of Department of Physical and Powder Metallurgy at the Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science at AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.
Design/methodology/approach: The samples of investigated steel were austenitized at the temperature of
900ºC and hardened in oil. Next, three from four samples were tempered. Tempering consisted of heating the
samples up to chosen temperatures with a heating rate of 0.05ºC/s and, after reaching desired temperature, fast cooling. CEMS technique was applied for Mössbauer studies.
Findings: Stabilized by heating up to 80ºC retained austenite, in the result of mechanical destabilization,
transforms into low-temperature tempered martensite, with the structure of low bainite (into the structural
constituent in which ε carbide exists).
Research limitations/implications: The influence of the temperature, up to which the samples were heated during tempering, on the mechanical stability of retained austenite and on the products of its transformation, was determined.
Practical implications: Changes occuring in retained austenite during tempering of steel of high hardenability
(hardness), developed for potential applications on tools of enhanced wear resistance, were described.
Originality/value: Mössbauer spectroscopy was applied not only for qantitative analysis of retained austenite,
but also to analyze the values of quadrupole splitting and isomeric shift, what resulted in significant conclusions
concerning the changes in its chemical composition, microstructure, and the level of stresses being present in it
