New approach to heat treatment of spring steel

Abstract

Abstract In the 54SiCr6 spring steel, a spheroidized structure was achieved by two processing methods: conventional soft annealing above the temperature A1 in a furnace and accelerated ASR annealing by an induction heating equipment. The ASR technology is much faster, even for materials with a worse tendency to the spheroidisation, such as steels with higher silicon content. Thanks to this, a finer structure is obtained. This is the basis of other advantages for the subsequent hardening. Quenching can be done at lower temperatures, higher yield and tensile strength is obtained while maintaining same or improved ductility and contraction. This also results in influencing of fatigue behavior.