Industrial Trials on Preparation of Cerium‐Treated H13 Steel by Electroslag Remelting with Cerium‐Oxide Containing Slag

Abstract

To realize an industrial production of a cerium‐treated electroslag remelted H13 steel, electroslag remelting (ESR) of H13 steel using a CaF2–CeO2–CaO–Al2O3 system slag combined with a Si–Ca reductant addition is studied. The influence of the Al2O3 content in the slag on the cerium treatment effect of cerium‐oxide‐containing slag is investigated to determine the appropriate slag. A 52.2 wt% CaF2–26.7 wt% CeO2–17.8 wt% CaO–3.3 wt% Al2O3 slag (RE‐Slag) is employed for the industrial ESR production of H13 steel. An H13 steel remelted by a 70 wt% CaF2–30 wt% Al2O3 slag (CA‐Slag) is used for comparison. Al2O3 can suppress the reduction of cerium oxide by changing the activities of slag components. ESR with RE‐Slag achieves a cerium treatment of H13 steel. However, an uneven distribution of Ce is obtained due to the limitation of the reductant addition method. The H13 steel remelted with RE‐Slag (RE‐Slag‐H13) has higher cleanliness, finer dendritic structures, and finer primary carbides than those of the steel remelted with CA‐Slag (CA‐Slag‐H13). Compared to the forged CA‐Slag‐H13 steel, the banded segregation of the RE‐Slag‐H13 steel is suppressed, and the impact toughness is increased by 30%.