Prediction of suitable heat treatment for H13 tool steels by application of thermal shock fatigue cycle

Abstract

In industry, thermally shocked components lead to early failures and unexpected breakdowns during production resulting in huge losses in profit. Thus, the present study investigates the as-received, hardened and hardened and nitrogen treated H13 tool steels subjected to a thermal shock gradient similar to the actual industrial applications. The thermal shock gradients were created by using an in-house-built thermal shock fatigue cyclic treatment machine. The effect of thermal shock fatigue cyclic treatments at 1000 and 2000 thermal shock cycles in hot and molten metal chambers was noticed. All the thermal shock fatigue cyclic-treated samples were analysed by hardness, X-ray diffraction, microscopy and magnetic tests. The interesting changes in hardness, distorted crystal structure and crack initiation were found to be different for differently treated H13 tool steel specimens. The molten aluminium was more prone to stick to the surface of as-received as well as hardened and nitrogen treated steel compared to the hardened H13 steel specimens, which would delay the crack initiation. The wear resistance properties of the hardened H13 steel specimens were found to be higher than as-received and hardened and nitrogen treated H13 steel specimens after thermal shock fatigue cyclic treatment. The loss in magnetic properties was significant for the hardened and hardened and nitrogen treated samples compared to as-received H13 tool steel specimens. Therefore, the present 1000 and 2000 thermal fatigue cycles for 30 s at 670 °C would be worthy to predict the proper heat treatment method to design the parameters as well as the life of die-casting components and to help in the economical production of casting.