The ultra-fine bainitic steels and refinement technology

By employing the new developed relaxation-precipitation-controlling phase transformation (RPC) technique in large scale production the bainitic steels with ultra fine bainite has been obtained. These bainitic steels have good synergistic properties. With the aid of thermal simulation the refinement mechanism of RPC technique has also been investigated. The optical microscope, scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and Electron back scattering diffraction technique were employed to study the features of microstructure produced by RPC technique, precipitation and the evolution of dislocation configuration during the relaxation. The results show that when produced by RPC technique the microstructure of the steel is mainly ultra-fine lath bainite packets, and these bainite packets block each other. It is also found that during the relaxation the dislocation cells form and strain induced precipitation occurs, the dislocation cell pinned by the precipitates can confine the bainite transformation. After the relaxation during the cooling the acicular ferrite forms at first and in succeeding the bainite transformation is blocked by the acicular ferrite and the bainite is refined effectively.