George Krauss, University Emeritus Professor at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, is to present the keynote session at Heat Treat 2019 in Detroit. He will discuss Heat Treated Carbon Steels: Great Versatility, Excellent Performance, but Beware of Embrittlements.
Low-alloy carbon steels quenched to martensite and tempered, provide many excellent combinations of strength and fracture resistance, depending on carbon content and tempering temperature. Heat treated microstructures that enable strain hardening to eventual ductile fracture provide outstanding performance. Hardness, which is a good quality control measure, correlates well with ultimate tensile strength.
However, there are chemical and tempering factors that cause the development of microstructures for which the hardness/ultimate tensile strength correlation breaks down, caused by what are termed “embrittlement phenomena.”
This presentation will address embrittlement phenomena that cause brittle intergranular fracture between prior austenite grains, namely quench embrittlement, tempered martensite embrittlement, temper embrittlement, and hydrogen embrittlement. The microstructural components and conditions that produce good mechanical performance and those that reduce performance by intergranular fracture will be discussed.
