Study on Carbide in Forged and Annealed H13 Hot Work Die Steel

The present work studied the carbides in forged and annealed H13 hot work die steel. The carbides were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) and analyzed with quantitative chemical analysis method. The carbide types, qualities and compositions in dependence on temperatures were thermodynamically calculated by Thermo-Calc software and compared with the experimental results. In the final, methods for carbide improvement were discussed. The results are as follows. The primary carbides and the carbide segregation are improved after the hot-forging operation. The carbides in the hot-forged and annealed H13 steel are M7C3, M-6(C, N) and M(C, N) which is accordance with the calculated results. Trace Mg added to the H13 steel leads to an increase of primary carbide nucleation and a decrease of primary carbide size.