Review on the Effect of Deep Cryogenic Treatment of Metallic Materials in Automotive Applications

Abstract

With the development of society, every year there are increasing demands in the automotive industry on cost savings, environmental safety, reduction of raw material consumption, performance improvement, material life cycle and recycling of components. In this review, emphasis is given on ferrous and non-ferrous alloys, which are used as components, where both groups can be treated by deep cryogenic treatment (DCT). DCT has shown to increase hardness, tensile strength and wear resistance, reduce density of defects in crystal structure, improve toughness and corrosion resistance. Though, some researchers also reported results that showed no change in material properties, or even deterioration of material properties, when subjected to DCT. This additionally points out to lack of consistency and reliability of the DCT process, which is needed for its successful incorporation in automotive applications. However, to prove with certainty the resulting outcome on the material properties and knowledge about the reasons for the variation of this effect on metallic materials, further approach and testing with different variables should be conducted in the future. This review provides a synopsis of different approaches of DCT on different materials for automotive applications in order to indicate effects on the material performance during DCT.