Cleanliness Control of High Nitrogen Stainless Bearing Steel by Vacuum Carbon Deoxidation in a PVIM Furnace

High cleanliness is a crucial factor determining the service performance of bearing steel. Considering the strong deoxidation ability of carbon under vacuum, vacuum carbon deoxidation was adopted in the cleanliness control of high nitrogen stainless bearing steel. In this paper, a mathematical model...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Metallurgical and materials transactions. B, Process metallurgy and materials processing science Process metallurgy and materials processing science, 2021-12, Vol.52 (6), p.3777-3787
Main Authors: Feng, Hao, Li, Hua-Bing, Liu, Zhuang-Zhuang, Jiang, Zhou-Hua, Lu, Peng-Chong, He, Tong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bearing steels
Bubbles
Carbon
Carbon content
Carbon monoxide
Characterization and Evaluation of Materials
Chemistry and Materials Science
Cleanliness
Crucibles
Decomposition reactions
Deoxidizing
Electromagnetic induction
Electromagnetic stirring
Finite element method
Free surfaces
Liquid metals
Mass transfer
Materials Science
Metallic Materials
Nanotechnology
Numerical methods
Original Research Article
Oxygen
Oxygen content
Structural Materials
Surfaces and Interfaces
Thin Films
Vacuum induction melting
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Summary:High cleanliness is a crucial factor determining the service performance of bearing steel. Considering the strong deoxidation ability of carbon under vacuum, vacuum carbon deoxidation was adopted in the cleanliness control of high nitrogen stainless bearing steel. In this paper, a mathematical model for vacuum carbon deoxidation during pressure/vacuum induction melting (PVIM) was proposed considering the occurrence of carbon–oxygen reaction at the free surface of molten pool and at the interface between CO bubbles and molten steel as well as crucible decomposition. The effect of electromagnetic stirring on the mass transfer of oxygen was analyzed using the finite element numerical method and the effect of CO bubbles on the deoxidation process was also considered. The influence of pressure, temperature and initial carbon content on deoxidization was studied and experimentally verified. The results indicated that the predicted variation of oxygen content in molten steel with time agreed well with the experimental results. Electromagnetic stirring effectively promoted the mass transfer of oxygen in molten steel and the carbon–oxygen reaction at free surface of molten pool was the main pathway for deoxidization. The pressure, temperature and initial carbon content influenced the vacuum carbon deoxidation process by affecting the carbon–oxygen reaction rate, crucible decomposition and mass transfer coefficient of oxygen. Finally, optimum melting parameters were recommended.
ISSN:1073-5615
1543-1916
DOI:10.1007/s11663-021-02291-7