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Acta Metall Sin  2019, Vol. 55 Issue (5): 585-592    DOI: 10.11900/0412.1961.2018.00319
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Effect of Low Temperature Annealing on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultra-Heavy Cold-DrawnPearlitic Steel Wires
Hanchen FENG1,Xuegang MIN2,Dasheng WEI1,Lichu ZHOU1,Shiyun CUI2,Feng FANG1()
1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
2. Jiangsu Bao Steel Precision Steel Wire Co., Ltd., Nantong 226114, China
Cite this article: 

Hanchen FENG,Xuegang MIN,Dasheng WEI,Lichu ZHOU,Shiyun CUI,Feng FANG. Effect of Low Temperature Annealing on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Ultra-Heavy Cold-DrawnPearlitic Steel Wires. Acta Metall Sin, 2019, 55(5): 585-592.

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Abstract  

Ultra-heavy cold-drawn pearlite wires provide an excellent combination of ductility and strength. Therefore, they have been widely used in engineering applications, such as suspension bridge cables, automotive tyre cords and cutting wires. In this work, the effects of low temperature annealing on the microstructure and mechanical properties of ultra-heavy cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires were investigated. The mechanical properties have been determined by tensile testing and the structures analyzed by TEM and HRTEM. The overall carbon contents in the detected volumes as well as the carbon concentrations in ferrite and cementite were measured by 3DAP. Experimental results show that, for the steel wires with strain (ε) less than 4, annealing in the range of 120~170 ℃ could effectively increase the strength of steel wires and remain most of the plastic performance. The tensile strength of wire with a strain of 3.0 can be increased about 150 MPa after annealing at 150 ℃ for 8 min. However, both of strength and toughness of steel wires with a strain 4.5 decreased after annealed at 170 ℃. After the steel wire is deformed by excessive strain (ε=4.5), the cementite decomposed obviously. DSC analysis showed that there is an obviously exothermic peak between 150 ℃ and 170 ℃ in the DSC curve. The TEM diffraction pattern analysis reveal the phenomenon of tailing at diffraction pattern, which is mainly caused by segregation of carbon atom at the dislocation after annealed at 150 ℃. However, HRTEM images show that annealing temperature as low as 170 ℃ could result in the transformation of partial cementite from amorphous state to nano-crystalline state. It could effectively pin and hinder the movement of dislocations. The underlying mechanism responsible for changes in microstructure and mechanical properties after annealing at low temperature are closely related to C-segregation and "crystal-amorphous" cementite transformation in heavy cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires.

Key words:  pearlitic steel wire      cold-drawn      low temperature annealing      tensile strength      cementite     
Received:  09 July 2018     
ZTFLH:  TG142  
Fund: National Natural Science Foundation of China(51371050);Jiangsu Province 333 Project(BRA2018045);Industry-University Strategic Research Fund of Jiangsu Province(BA2017112);"Six Talent Peaks" Project of Jiangsu Province(2015-XCL-004)

URL: 

https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/10.11900/0412.1961.2018.00319     OR     https://www.ams.org.cn/EN/Y2019/V55/I5/585

Fig.1  Evolutions of tensile strength with annealing time (t) under different strains (ε) of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires at 120 ℃ (a), 150 ℃ (b) and 170 ℃ (c)
Fig.2  Engineering stress-strain curves of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires before and after annealing at different temperatures for 32 min under ε=3.0 (a) and ε=4.5 (b)
Fig.3  Microstructures of wire rod (a) and cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires before (b) and after (c) annealing at 170 ℃ for 32 min under ε=3.0
Fig.4  Bright field (a, c) and dark field (b, d) TEM images of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires on the longitudinal section before (a, b) and after (c, d) annealing at 170 ℃ for 32 min under ε=3.0 (White arrows in Fig.4a show crystal defects)
Fig.5  HRTEM analyses of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires before (a) and after (b) annealing at 170 ℃ for 32 min under ε=3.5 (The ferrite exhibits distinguishable lattice fringes of inset A1, inverse fast Fourier transformation (IFFT) images of the A2 region area shows a disordered structure of cementite, discrete bright spots do not appear from the diffraction of cementite using the fast Fourier transformation (FFT) method. Fig.5b shows the selected area FFT and IFFT images obtained inside the boxed region. d—lattice spacing)
Fig.6  3D atom maps of C of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires under ε=4.5 (a), C atom concentration distributions along vertical direction (b) and horizontal direction (c)Color online
Fig.7  Bright field TEM image on the longitudinal section and electron diffraction pattern (inset) of cold-drawn peearlitic steel wire after annealing at 150 ℃ for 32 min under ε=4.0
Fig.8  DSC curves of cold-drawn pearlitic steel wires with different strains
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