Powder Metallurgy and Spray Formed 10 V Cold Work Tool Steels, A Comparison

摘要

Vanadium rich carbides are typically desired in cold work tool steels, to increase wear resistance and tool life. However, the coarsen as-cast microstructure limits vanadium content in conventionally cast steels. Powder metallurgy (PM) and the emerging spray forming (SF) process are useful alternative processes to refine as-cast microstructure and enable high V tool steel production. Therefore, the present work aims to compare PM and SF 10%V cold work tool steels, as regards to wear resistance and toughness. Microstructural results has shown that both steels have homogeneous carbide distribution, but V rich carbides are finer in the PM than in the SF steels. Such microstructure leads to better abrasive wear resistance but lower toughness for the SF material.