Effect of Thermochemical and Surface Mechanical Treatments on the Microstructure, Properties and Fatigue Resistance of Steel 20Kh (20Cr4)
摘要
A comparative analysis of the structure, properties of the surface layer and fatigue resistance of samples of steel 20Kh (20Cr4) subjected to gas carburizing, quenching and low tempering with subsequent surface treatments — grinding, diamond burnishing or nanostructuring burnishing with a PSTM DBN tool after preliminary turning is carried out. Fatigue tests of cylindrical samples are performed using a bending-twisting scheme according to the ASTM E466-07 Standard, and their fractures are examined. It is shown that the surface layer with a nanocrystalline structure suppresses the development of fatigue cracks until 1.9 × 105 test cycles of treatment at a load of 1000 MPa. The surface layer formed by the nanostructuring burnishing has a thickness of 8– 10 μm, a nanocrystalline structure, and a microhardness of 1185 HV0.05; together with the deformed carburized layer with carbon concentration 0.97% at a distance of up to 125 μm from the surface it provides a higher fatigue resistance than the processing by grinding and diamond burnishing.