The Effect of Boriding and Heat Treatment on the Structure and Properties of 100Cr6 Steel

The main aim of this case study is to present the changes caused by heat treatment on the structure and properties of 100Cr6 steel by annealing, hardening, and tempering in combination with previous chemical-heat treatment (CHT) by boriding. The boriding causes changes to the microstructure of the steel samples, which include a change in the morphology of the deposited cementite and a change in the volume of the chromium carbide particles. The cementite is transformed from its original granular form to a lamellar form. An increase in the proportion of chromium carbide particles in the sample occurs due to the higher affinity of chromium for carbon. This leads to precipitation of chromium carbides rather than carbides of iron. A multiphase diffusion layer Fe2B-FeB with a thickness of 31 +/- 2.8 mu m is formed during boriding, with a typical tooth-like texture. Although the diffusion layer does not have the same toughness and resistance as the single-phase Fe2B diffusion layer, samples after boriding increase their resistance to tribological abrasion by 29 % compared to samples without this treatment. After quenching and tempering of the borided samples, a maximum tensile strength of Rm = 1779 MPa is measured. Compared to samples which are only quenched and subsequently tempered, this is an increase in tensile strength of about 59 %.