August 2022 Volume 4

FORGING RESEARCH

FIA’s Technical Committee Approves 9 New Grants

The Forging Industry Educational Research Foundation received several grant submissions this year from returning magnet schools and new schools. FIA’s Technology Committee reviewed the submissions, and FIERF is pleased to announce the following projects have been approved for funding. Non-metallic Inclusion Evolution During Vacuum Processing of Steel – Carnegie Mellon University This micro grant proposal is for a summer project whose objective is to study the changes that occur to non-metallic inclusions during vacuum inductionmelting (VIM) and vacuumarc remelting (VAR). Previous work has shown large inclusions containing elements such as Ca, Al, and Si can become entrained in VAR ingots. The VAR process can effectively remove small non-metallic inclusions, but large (100s of micrometers diameter) can persist in the melt pool and become entrained in the solid. Preliminary characterization from an ongoing CISR project at Carnegie Mellon suggests that these large inclusions are agglomerates of VIM inclusions that persist through VAR. These large inclusions in VAR ingots have chemical compositions similar to oxide dross formed during VIM and are very different from the smaller, endogenous inclusions. These observations are based on limited data, so additional sample testing is necessary to further develop this correlation. Investigation of Decarburization of Steel on Forgings – Cleveland State University Forging and heat treatment of steels are generally carried out in furnaces having an oxidizing atmosphere. Scales are formed on the steel materials during their heating, resulting in a lowered product yield, accompanied with various problems, such as lowering in the commercial value of the products due to surface imperfection and

lowering in the strength of the steel products due to decarburization. Decarburization is a loss of carbon atoms from the surface of the work pieces, thereby producing a surface with lower carbon content than at some other distance beneath the surface. It implies changes of mechanical properties as, e.g., the changes of hardness and of fatigue resistance. Decarburization and oxidation occur simultaneously. The reaction rates are high, and there is competition between the two phenomena: oxidation rapidly consumes the decarburized metal. Therefore, it has a lot of difficulties to prevent steel from oxidation and decarburization simultaneously. The primary objective of this project is to study and characterize decarburized layer of oxidized steel samples.This analysis will help to select proper surface engineering treatment in order to prevent decarburization during preheating of forging billet. In Situ X-ray Capabilities for Forging Studies – Pennsylvania State University The primary objective of this research is to aid process route design for reaching microstructure targets during forging using new in situ diagnostics to characterize microstructural evolution within engineering alloys in conditions mimicking thermomechanical processing. Specifically, we will begin developing capabilities to simulate conditions relevant to thermomechanical processing (i.e., high temperatures and multiaxial stress) during in situ synchrotron X-raydiffractionexperiments.These effortswill include exploring the feasibilityof adaptingX-raycompatiblemultianvil systemspreviously designed to study subsurface microstructural evolution in geological materials to alloy thermomechanical processing. Synchrotron high-energy X-ray techniques have significantly advanced our understanding of microscale deformation during plasticity and provide the data necessary for calibrating micromechanical models.

FIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2022 68