Specification
ORIGINAL
Description
Title of Invention: ROLLED STEEL BAR OR WIRE FOR HOT
FORGING
Technical Field
[ 0 0 0 11
The present invention relates to a rolled steel bar
or a wire rod for hot forging for use as starting
material of a component such as a gear and a pulley.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a
rolled steel bar or a wire rod for hot forging roughly
formed through hot forging, wh,ich are excellent in
machinability before carburizing or carbonitriding', and
also excellent in bending fatigue strength and surface
fatigue strength of a carburized or carbonitrided
component.
Background Art
[0002]
Conventional steel components such as gears and
pulleys of automobiles or industrial machinery are made
by using, as starting materials, rolled steel bars or
wire rods of alloy steel for mechanical structures such
as SCr420, SCM 420, and SNCM 420 specified by JIS
standard, which are roughly' formed through hot forging or
cold forging. After normalized if necessary, the, roughly
formed rolledsteel bars or the wire rods are machined,
- 2 -
and then carburizing-quenched or carbonitriding-quenched,
and thereafter are tempered at a temperature of not more
than 200°C. The rolled steel bars or the wire rods are
further subjected to shot peening processing if necessary
for production, thereby securing a property required for
each component such as contact fatigue strength, bending
fatigue strength, and wear resistance.
[0003]
Due to recent progress in weight reduction and size
reduction of components in order to achieve improvement
of fuel efficiency of automobiles and high output
performance of engines, load applied to the components
tends to be increased. Meanwhile, in the light of cost
reduction, there are also strong needs to omit additional
surface processing such as shot peening after
carburizing-quenching. There are also strong needs to
enhance machinability because the percentage of machining
cost in the total processing cost of components is great.
[0004]
It is common to add more alloying elements in order
to enhance fatigue strength of components, but this often
deteriorates machinability. Hence, it has been desired
to cope with both b,ending/contact fatigue strength and
machinability of the components at a high level.
[0005]
The aforementioned "contact fatigue" includes
"surface fatigue", "linear fatigue", and "point fatigue",
but there barely occur a "linear" contact or a "point"
contact in reality; thus the "surface fatigue strength"
is handled as the contact fatigue strength.
[0006]
Pitching is one of fracture morphologies of the
surface fatigue, and the damage morphology of the surface
fatigue caused on a surface tooth of a gear or'a pulley,
etc., is chiefly pitching. Hence, enhancement of the ,
pitching strength corresponds to enhancement of the ' .
aforementioned surface fatigue strength, and-thus the
"pitching" will be described as the "surface fatigue",
and the "pitching strength" is referred to as the
"surface fatigue strength", hereinafter.
[0007]
JP60-21359A, JP7-242994A, JP7-126803A suggest
improvement of steel for gears. Specifically, JP60-
21359A discloses steel for gears specified to contain Si:
not more than 0.1% and P: not more .than 0.01% so as to
provide gears excellent in strength and stiffness, and
having high reliability. JP7-242994A discloses steel for
gears, gears, and a method of producing the gears
specified to contain Cr: 1.50 to 5.0%, and
7.5%>2.2xSi ( % ) +2.5xMn ( % ) +Cr ( % ) +5.7xMo ( % ) if necessary, or
Si:0.40 to 1.0% so as to be excellent in tooth surface
strength. JP7-126803A discloses carburized steel for
gears specified to contain Si: 0.35 to not more than 3.0%,
and V: 0.05 to 0.5% so as to be preferable to provide
gears excellent in wear resistance and surface fatigue
strength as well as bending fatigue strength.
Disclosure of the Invention
Since no account is taken for the surface fatigue
strength in JP60-21359A, the surface fatigue strength is
insufficient. Since no account is taken for the bending
fatigue strength in JP7-242994A, the bending fatigue
strength is insufficient. The machinability is also . '
insufficient. Since sufficient account is not taken for
the bending fatigue strength in JP7-126803A, the bending
fatigue strength is insufficient. Since V-addition
significantly increases hardness of steel after hot
forging, the machinability is also insufficient.
[0009]
As described in JP60-21359A, JP7-242994A, and JP7-
126803A, it has been well known that adjustment of
contents of Si and Cr produces steel material excellent
in bending/surface fatigue strength after carburizing or
carbonitriding. In general, it is, however, difficult to
cope with both the banding/surface fatigue strength and
the machinability at a high level, which conflict with
each other.
[OOlO]
An object of the present invention is to provide a
rolled steel bar or a wire.rod for hot forging to be
roughly formed through hot forging, which is capable of
coping with both machinability and bending/surface
fatigue strength of a carburizing-quenched or
carbonitriding-quenched component at a high level.
Solution to Problem and Advantageous Effects of Invention
The rolled steel bar or the wire rod for hot forging
according to the present invention includes: a
composition containing, in mass%, C: 0.1 to 0.25%, Si:
0.01 to 0.10%, Mn: 0.4 to 1.0%, S: 0.003 to 0.05%, Cr:
1.60 to 2.00%, Mo: 0.10% or less (including O%), Al:
0.025 to 0.05%, and N: 0.010 to 0.025%, in which contents
of Cr and Mo satisfies 1.82rough
I
L (
an image analysis'in accordpnce with a common method'i :
I 1 i The microstructure of every1 specimen included no , , ,
I I I martensite structure, and whs constituted by any one1 of
I
I
the ferrite-pearlite structure, the ferrite-pearlite- I bainite structure, or the f,errite-bainite structure.;,
, 1
[0052] I I i j
Each rolled steel bar 'for hot forging having a 1 I ( 1
diameter of 50 mm, which was produced by using each3steel I of Table 1 underithe condition shown in Table 2, was, I k '
heated at a temperature of 1200°C for 30 minutes, and was
f '
roller pitching test shownI in Figure 1, and each sp1e cimen 1
having a notched portion ;or the Ono-type rotating / I
then hot-forged at a finishing temperature of 950°C ;br
, I :
bending fatigue test a shape shown in ~i~urd'j2 I:/
more, so as to be' produced
1 '
into a round bar having
I I
diameter of 35 mm. Each small roller specimen for a' I i.1
Condition: cutting speed was 200 m/min., feed rate
was 0.30 mm/rev., depth of cut was 1.5 mm, and watersoluble
cutting fluid was Gsed.
Measurement item: amount of flank wear at major
cutting edge after ten minutes of cutting time.
[0060]
The test result of each test above was shown in
Table 4. The target value in the cutting test was
specified to have amount of flank wear .at the major
cutting edge of 20% or more than 20% smaller than that in
Test No. 2 specified to be 100, where Test No. 2 was
produced by carburizing the steel B that is a
conventional high strength material satisfying the
specification of SCM822H of JIS standard.
Test
-No.
1
2
-3
-4
-5
6
7
-8
9
-10
Classification I Steel
Comparative Ex. 'A
Comparative Ex. *B
Comparative EX. C
Inventive Ex. C
Comparative Ex. C
Comparative Ex. C
Comparative Ex. C
Comparative Ex. C
Inventive Ex. C
Comparative Ex. C
Table 21 Average Ferrite
2 F+P 1.5
(2) F+P+B 1.7
(1) F+P+B '2.3
(2) F+P+B 1.7
(3) F+P+B '2.2
(4) F+P+B '2.8 -
(5) F+P+B *2.4
(6) F+ B '3.2
(7) F+P+B 1.3
(8) F+P+B *2.. 1
Mediumcycle1Bending
Fatigue Strength
(Specified)
Standard (100)
#I12
#I12
120
#114
#I02
#I10
#I 04
125
#I14
HighcyclelBending
Fatigue Strength
(Specified)
Standard (1 00)
#I12
118
120
118
#I12
116
#I14
120
118
I *) represents deviation from the scope of the present invention. I
Surface Fatigue
Strength
(Specified)
Standard (100)
120
120
130
120
#I15
120
#I10
i 30
125
I #) represents that the target of the present invention is not achieved.
Cutting TesVWear
Amount at Main
Cutting Edge
(Specified)
70
Standard (1 00)
75
70
75
75
75
75
70
70
As show in Table 4, in each test for Test No, that
.deviated from the condition specified by the present
invention, at least one of the target bending fatigue
strength, surface fatigue strength, and machinability was
not achieved.
[0062]
In each test for Test No. that satisfied the
condition specified by the present invention, the target
bending fatigue strength, surface fatigue strength, and
machinability were all achieved.
Example 2
[0063]
Quality governing was applied to steels D to T
having the chemical compositions shown in Table 5 in the
70-ton converter, and rectangular ca'st pieces of 400 mm x
300 mm were produced through continuous casting, and were
cooled down to not more than 600°C.
[Table 51
[0064]
Rolling reduction was applied to each steel while
being solidified in the continuous casting. Each cast
piece was heated.under the condition shown in Table 2,
- 33 -
and thereafter the cast piece was formed into a square
billet of 180 mm x 180 mm through the blooming, and then
was cooled down to the room temperature. Subsequently,
the billets were heated under the condition shown in
Table 2, and thereafter, were hot-rolled into steel bars
having a diameter of 50 mm and 70 rnrn under the condition
shown in Table 2. The investigation item and the
investigation method were the same as those described in
Example 1.
[0065]
The test result of each test was shown in Table 6.
As show in Table 6, in each test for Test No. that
deviated from the condition specified by the present
invention, at least one of the target bending fatigue
strength, surface fatigue strength, and machinability was
not achieved.
[00671
In each test for Test No. that satisfied.the
condition specified by the present invention, the target
bending fatigue strength, surface fatigue strength, and
machinability were all achieved. The tests for Test No.
31 and Test No. 33 containing Nb had results
significantly exceeding the target value. The tests for
Test No. 39 to Test No. 41 containing at least one of Cu
and Ni had results significantly exceeding the target
value.
[0068]
The embodiment of the present invention has been
explained as described above, but the aforementioned ,
embodiment was nothing but an example for carrying out
the present invention. Accordingly, the present
invention is not limited to the aforementioned embodiment,
and various modifications and variations of the
aforementioned embodiment may be carried out without
departing from the scope of the invention.
We claim:
[Claim 11
A rolled steel bar or a wire rod for hot forging
comprising:
a composition containing, in mass%,
C: 0.1 to 0.25%,
Si: 0.01 to 0.10%,
Mn: 0.4 to 1.0%,
S: 0.003 to 0.05%,
Cr: 1.60 to 2.00%, .
Mo: 0.10% or less (including O % ) ,
Al: 0.025. to 0.05%, and
N: 0.010 to 0.025%,
contents of Cr and Mo satisfying 1.821fn112.10 if a
value of fnl expressed by a following formula (1) is
given :
fnl=Cr+2xMo (1) I
where an symbol of each element in the formula (1).
represents a content of the element in mass%;
a balance being Fe and impurities having a
composition containing P: 0.025% or less, Ti: 0.003% or
less, and 0 (oxygen) : 0.002% or less;
a structure including any one of a ferrite-pearlite
structure, a ferrite-pearlite-bainite structure, and a
ferrite-bainite structure; and
a cross section in which a maximum value/a minimum
value of an average ferrite grain diameter is 2.0 or less
- 37 -
when measurement by observation is .randomly carried out
in 15 visual fields with an area per visual field set to
be 62500 pn2.
[Claim 23
The rolled steel bar or the wire rod for hot forging
according to claim 1, wherein
the rolled steel bar or the wire rod contains Nb:
0.08% or less in mass% instead of part of Fe.
[Claim 31
The rolled steel bar or the wire rod for ,hot forging
according to claim 1 or 2, wherein
the rolled steel bar or the w.ire rod contains at
least one of Cu: 0.4% or less and Ni: 0.8% or less in
mass% instead of part of Fe.