Achieving Synergistic Improvement on Wear Performance of D3 Cold-Work Steel by Modifying the Number and Order of Deep Cryogenic and Tempering Treatments

Abstract

This study concentrates on the effects of several tempering processes both before and after the deep cryogenic process on the microstructural, hardness, and tribological characteristics of D3-type steel. The treatment contains hardening at 950 degrees C for 40 min, tempering at 250 degrees C for 2 h, and deep cryogenic treatment at -196 degrees C for 18 h. A ball-on-disk wear tester conducts wear tests against the aluminum oxide (Al2O3) ball under a load providing 1.9 GPa Hertzian contact pressure, simulating severe wear conditions. Double tempering-cryogenic treatment-double tempering (DTCDT) was the best heat treatment combination. There was a substantial decrease in wear rate in DTCDT samples by up to 80.3% owing to their homogeneously distributed finer carbide formation.