Jian Wang

High-carbon martensitic steels for bearing components are conventionally low-temperature tempered for stress relief, yet the influence of tempering temperature on compressive and fatigue wear resistance remains unclear, directly affecting the service life of bearing races and rollers. In this study, a high-carbon martensitic steel was tempered at 170 °C, 200 °C, and 230 °C. The microstructural evolution, compressive properties, and contact fatigue wear resistance were systematically investigated, along with the corresponding strengthening and wear mechanisms. After spheroidizing annealing and quenching, the microstructure consists of high-carbon martensite and retained austenite, with a high density of dislocations and fine twins. Tempering decomposes retained austenite into tempered martensite and promotes fine carbide precipitation, processes that become more pronounced at higher temperatures. Consequently, hardness decreases from 810 HV in the as-quenched state to 690 HV after 230 °C tempering, while compressive failure strain increases from 10.5% to 24.1%. More importantly, under cyclic contact stress, the 230 °C-tempered specimen exhibits approximately 33% lower wear mass loss than the 170 °C-tempered counterpart, despite its lower hardness. This unexpected improvement is attributed to the formation of a distinct plastic deformation zone in the near-surface region, which absorbs greater strain energy and delays fatigue spallation. The well-tempered martensitic matrix accommodates more long-range dislocation slip, enabling a transition from fatigue spallation to a more ductile failure mode. These findings provide new insights into the role of low-temperature tempering in balancing strength, ductility, and wear resistance, and offer practical guidance for optimizing heat treatment protocols to enhance the contact fatigue performance of bearing steels.

Taking a typical carburized alloy steel for heavy-duty gears as the research object, this work regulates carburizing–quenching and tempering processes to conduct a layer-by-layer analysis of gradient-distributed microstructures and mechanical properties in the carburized layer. The effects of tempering temperature on martensite evolution, mechanical properties, and wear resistance were specifically investigated. Results demonstrate that carburizing–quenching followed by cryogenic treatment generates high-carbon martensite at the surface, progressively transitioning to lath martensite towards the core. Low-temperature tempering promotes fine carbide precipitation, while elevated temperatures cause carbide coarsening. Specimens tempered at 175 °C achieve surface hardness of 800 HV and near-surface compressive yield strength of 2940 MPa. These samples exhibit 13% lower wear mass loss compared to 240 °C tempered counterparts, demonstrating superior wear resistance characterized by relatively flat wear surfaces, uniform contact stress distribution, and reduced cross-sectional plastic deformation zones. Key strengthening mechanisms at lower tempering temperatures involve solution strengthening, dislocation strengthening, and partial precipitation strengthening from carbides. Coherent carbides formed under these conditions impede fatigue dislocation motion via shearing mechanisms to suppress plastic deformation and fatigue crack initiation under contact fatigue stress, thereby enhancing wear performance.

The effect of different heat treatment processes (as-cast, annealing, forging, and annealing after forging) on the microstructure transition and mechanical property evolution of Fe50Mn30Co10Cr10 alloys with different carbon contents (0, 0.2, 0.5 wt.%) was investigated, and a potential strengthening–toughening mechanism was revealed. With 0.5 wt.% carbon added, the interstitial carbon atoms provided a great deal of strength and the highest hardness was obtained. Meanwhile, the high carbon content generated a large amount of stacking fault energy and inhibited the transition of a face-centered cubic (FCC) to a hexagonal close-packed phase (HCP); as such, the TRIP and TWIP effects were induced during deformation and a favorable ductility with the largest elongation to fracture (of 141%) was achieved. The forged-annealed specimen with 0.2 wt.% carbon obtained favorable comprehensive mechanical properties, with an ultimate tensile strength of 795 MPa and an elongation of 104%. After forging, the grains were refined and several dislocations were generated; as such, the yield strength was greatly improved. With subsequent annealing, a good phase distribution of FCC and HCP was achieved, inducing the TRIP and TWIP effects during deformation and producing favorable ductility.