Author(s)

S. A. El Badry, Hossam Halfa, A. Ahmed, A. G. Moustafa

Physics department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt..
Steel Technology Department, Central Metallurgical Research and Development Institute (CMRDI), Cairo, Egypt.

Mossbauer Effect (ME) spectra, microstructure and hardness of some alloyed and conventional AISI M41 high speed tool steel samples produced by induction furnace as well as after doing electro-slag refining (ESR) process under different slag compositions have been investigated. The obtained ME spectra for all samples could be analyzed to a singlet and three sextets. The appeared singlet in the conventional steel and that alloyed with nitrogen as well as two refined samples using electro-slag remelting 1 and 2 (ESR1, M41N and ESR2, M41N) can be attributed to γ–austenite phase, while the singlet that appeared in the refined sample 3 (ESR3, M41N) can be attributed to some iron nitride of the form ( ε-Fe₂N). In the refined sample, which does not contain nitrogen, γ–austenite phase cannot be found and some α-Fe₂O₃ was detected. The observed three sextets were attributed to three different magnetic martensite phases. It appeared also that some transformations in between the three martensite phases and between martensite and austenite take place, and all these changes were thoroughly discussed. It is interesting to state that the obtained ME results are in agreement with those obtained from optical microscopy and micro-hardness measurements.

High speed tool steel; Nitrogen; ESR; Mossbauer

S. Badry, H. Halfa, A. Ahmed and A. Moustafa, "Study of Electroslag Remelted and Nitrogen Containing High Speed Tool Steel M41," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 9 No. 1, 2010, pp. 1-11. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2010.91001.