Austenitizing Part 2 – Effects on Properties

Carbide Volume As covered in Part 1, carbide volume decreases with increasing temperature. As an example, here are micrographs showing carbides in a spray-form version of the original Vanadis 4 (non-Extra) [1]: This steel is a good representation of what can occur with more complicated steels versus our simple low-alloy steels illustrated in Part 1.…

Austenitizing Part 1 – What it is

During heat treating you've got to heat the steel up to form austenite, dissolve some carbon in solution, and rapidly quench to form martensite. If we assume we start with an annealed microstructure of ferrite and carbides we get something that looks like the following schematic: Here we have an idealized grain structure made up…

3v Modified – The Lost Crucible Steel

I enjoy reading patents from steel companies, it reveals information about new products and research often not available otherwise. One thing I'm surprised there isn't more talk about is a steel Crucible patented but never sold - an improved 3V: https://www.google.com/patents/US7615123 How was it improved? The primary change was that they reduced vanadium and replaced it…