Evolution of Microstructure during Isothermal Treatments of a Duplex-Austenitic 0.66C11.4Mn.9.9Al Low-Density Forging Steel and Effect on the Mechanical Properties
In the last decades, low-density steels for forging have increasing interest in the automotive
industry, and good mechanical properties are required for their real application. This paper
describes the results obtained for a 0.66C11.4Mn9.9Al duplex austenitic low-density steel after applying
a set of isothermal treatments at different combinations of time and temperature, aimed to
promote kappa carbide precipitation, and improve the mechanical properties obtained with a water
quenching treatment. The effects of the different isothermal treatments on the microstructure and
on the mechanical properties have been analyzed and compared to those obtained from a quenching
heat treatment. We found that isothermal treatments in the range temperature between 550–750 °C
promoted the profuse precipitation of coarse kappa carbides at grain boundaries, which dramatically
reduced the ductility of the alloy, whereas a traditional quenching treatment resulted in a better
combination of ductility and mechanical strength.This research has been carried out with a financial grant of the Basque Government under its ELKARTEK Research Program, KK-2016/00029-ABADE project and KK-2018/00016-COFADEN project