Effect of High-Energy and Instantaneous Electropulsing Treatment on Microstructure and Properties of 42CrMo Steel

42CrMo steel was widely used in many industry fields for its excellent hardenability and high temperature strength. Many transmission mechanisms and fasteners, such as roller and heat-resistant gear, are made of this steel. However, the ductility of 42CrMo steel is relatively low after quenching and tempering. During high tempering Mo riched carbides at grain boundary and undecomposable martensite at low tempering are the main reasons for poor ductility of 42CrMo steel. Grain refinement can enhance both strength and ductility significantly, but traditional refinement technology will cause intergranular oxidation so that strengthening effect was weak. Although thermomechanical treatment can achieve dynamic recrystallization, its refinement effect is unstable. Elecropulsing treatment, which makes significant change in microstructure and properties of metals, has been applied in many fields such as, modification of solidified microstructure of liquid metal, healing of fatigue crack, nanocrystallization of amorphous materials and so on. Moreover, this process can produce superior mechanical properties in metals. In order to improve the mechanical properties of 42CrMo steel better, high-energy and instantaneous electropulsing treatment was applied. In this contribution, 42CrMo steel was subjected to traditional and electropulsing treatment individually. It was found that EPQ treatment (480 ms electropulsing treatment, water cooled) results in finer grain, promoting the formation of retained austenite and twin martensite; EPT treatment (180 ms electropulsing treatment, air cooled) can stabilize retained austenite in EPQ specimen and induce multiphase structure. Mechanical properties results indicate that strength-ductility balance of EPQ and EPQ+EPT specimen are 32% and 13.9% higher than that of TQ (traditional quenched) and EPQ+TT (traditional tempered) specimen respectively.