The Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hot Forged Vanadium Microalloyed Steel

In this article, the effect of hot forging parameters (deformation temperature, strain, and cooling rate) on the microstructure and mechanical properties of commercial vanadium microalloyed forging steel (30MSV6) was investigated. Final, microstructures and mechanical properties were evaluated by optical microscopy, Charpy impact, Brinell hardness, yield, and tensile strength tests. The results show that increasing the cooling rate changes the ferritic-pearlitic microstructure to the acicular ferrite-bainite. It is shown that by increasing post forging cooling rate, both yield and ultimate tensile strength increase, while the impact energy decreases significantly. The specimens with the same cooling rate differ not only in deformation temperature, and the deformation ratio is immaterial in establishing a grain size.