Abstract
Network carbides, as a deleterious precipitate to the mechanical properties of bearing steel, are difficult to eliminate by traditional heat treatment. Here, an innovative strategy to rapidly dissolve network carbides using electric current pulses to improve the uniformity of the microstructure is proposed. The results show that the diffusion driven by electromigration is significantly enhanced compared to traditional heat treatment due to the high-density current on the network carbide surface. Furthermore, grain boundaries as fast diffusion paths play a key role in accelerating the dissolution of network carbides.
Acknowledgements
The work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (U21B2082; 51874023; U1860206), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1908403), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-TP-20-04B) and Recruitment Program of Global Experts.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).