Nano-crystallization of steel wire and its wear behavior

As carbon steel wire is widely used in civil engineering and industry, it is quite important to increase its strength. In the present paper, a severe cold drawing approach is applied to increase strength and is shown to produce nano grains. With increasing true strain, the tensile strength increases continuously and the cementite flake thickness decreases correspondingly. It is observed by transmission electron microscopy that a significant amount of cementite flakes have been fragmented and dissolved at true strains. Finally, the grains are transformed to nano-sized crystals. Additionally, the cold drawn nano-sized steel wire has been knitted and filled with polyurethane to produce a composite material. Three-body abrasive wear tests show that the wear resistance of the test material is even better than that of high-Cr white cast irons.