Effect of tempering on hardness improvement in a VC/steel surface-alloyed material fabricated by high-energy electron-beam irradiation

The present study is concerned with the tempering effect in improving the hardness of a vanadium carbide (VC)/carbon steel surface-alloyed material fabricated by high-energy electron-beam irradiation. The mixture of VC powders and flux (50%MgO–50%CaO) was placed on a plain carbon steel substrate, and then electron beam was irradiated. The surface-alloyed layer of 1.8 mm in thickness was homogeneously formed without defects. The microstructural analysis indicated that coarse VC particles were formed along solidification cell boundaries, and the matrix inside cells was mostly composed of lath-type martensite and fine cuboidal VC particles. A large amount of these VC particles in the lath-type martensitic matrix provided hardness four times greater than that of the substrate. When the VC/steel surface-alloyed material was tempered, fine VC particles precipitated in the tempered martensitic matrix, thereby leading to additional hardness increase. In addition, reduction of residual stress and an increase in fracture toughness could be expected.