Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216 227

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Thermal fatigue cracking of surface engineered hot work tool steels

Anders Persson a,*, Sture Hogmark b, Jens Bergstrom a
a

Department of Materials Engineering, Karlstad University, SE-651 88 Karlstad, Sweden

b
The Angstrom Laboratory, Uppsala University, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden
Received 22 October 2003; accepted in revised form 8 April 2004
Available online 2 June 2004

Abstract
Thermal fatigue cracking is an important life-limiting failure mechanism in die casting tools. It is observed as a network of fine cracks on
the surfaces exposed to thermal cycling. The crack network degrades the surface quality of the tool and, consequently, the surface of the
casting. Surface engineered materials are today successfully applied to improve the erosion and corrosion resistance. However, their
resistance against thermal fatigue is not fully explored.
In this work, a selection of hot work tool steel grades was surface modified and experimentally evaluated in a dedicated thermal fatigue
simulation test. The surface modifications included boriding, nitriding, Toyota diffusion (CrC), and physical vapour deposition (PVD) of
coatings (CrC, CrN and TiAlN), both as single-layers and deposited after nitriding (duplex treatment). Untreated specimens of each tool steel
grade were used as references. The test is based on cyclic induction heating and internal cooling of hollow cylindrical test rods. The surface
strain is continuously recorded through a non-contact laser speckle technique.
Generally, all surface treatments decreased the resistance against surface cracking as compared to the reference materials. The reason is
that the engineering processes influence negatively on the mechanical properties of the tool materials. Of the processes evaluated, duplex
treatment was the least destructive. It gave a lower crack density than the reference steel, but the diffusion layer is more susceptible to crack
propagation. In addition, the single-layered CrN coating showed almost comparable thermal fatigue cracking resistance as the reference
material. Finally, the resistance against thermal crack propagation of surface engineered tool steels is primarily determined by the mechanical
properties of the substrate material.
D 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Thermal fatigue; Heat checking; Surface strain; Surface engineering; Hot work tool steel; Die casting

1. Introduction
In die casting, molten metal of e.g. aluminium, zinc,
magnesium, and copper based alloys is forced by the
application of pressure to flow with high velocity during
injection and completely and rapidly fill an internally cooled
mould, typically within the order of milliseconds [1 3]. The
high melt velocity during injection and the continuos
internal cooling of the tool during the process allow production of thin-walled and complex near net-shaped cast
products at high manufacturing rates, typically of the order
of 100 castings per hour. When the casting has solidified,
the die is opened and the casting ejected. Subsequently, the
tool surfaces may be externally cooled and lubricated by

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +46-54-700-1821; fax: +46-54-7001449.

E-mail address: Anders.Persson@kau.se (A. Persson).
0257-8972/$ - see front matter D 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.
doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2004.04.053

spraying. Prior to casting aluminium and copper alloys, the

die is normally preheated to a temperature within the range
of 250 300 and 300 350 jC, respectively. For aluminium
alloys, the entrance velocity of the melt is usually 20 60 m/
s and the melt temperature is approximately 700 jC,
whereas those for copper alloys are about 1 10 m/s and
970 jC. Hot work tool steels, such as AISI H11, H13, H20,
H21, or H22, are commonly used as die materials.
Thermal fatigue cracking (often named heat checking) is
one of the most important life-limiting tool failure mechanisms in aluminium and brass die casting [1 3]. Other
considerable failure modes that limit the life and performance are for example gross fracture, erosion, corrosion and
local adherence of the casting alloy (soldering). Thermal
fatigue cracking results from the rapid alternations in die
surface temperature, which may induce stresses high enough
to impose an increment of plastic strain in the tool surface
during each casting cycle. Surface cracks develop generally
within a few thousand cycles, or even earlier, and are,

A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

consequently, formed in the low-cycle fatigue range

( < 103 104 cycles) [4,5]. Oxidation and creep may significantly contribute to cracking [4 8]. Thermal fatigue damage is often observed as a network of fine cracks on the tool
surface, and the cracks penetrate usually only a limited
surface layer. The crack network degrades the surface
quality of the tool, and since it is replicated on the surface
of the cast products, thermal fatigue cracking may ultimately cause higher production costs through rejection of
castings.
Surface engineerings of borides, carbides, and nitrides
are ceramic compounds with high hardness, wear resistance, and chemical inertness. Surface engineering has
proven successful to improve the erosion and corrosion
resistance as well as to reduce soldering of tool materials
in die casting applications and laboratory tests [9 15].
However, it has been shown that surface engineered
materials may show comparable, increased or decreased
resistance against thermal cracking as compared to untreated materials [14 20], and the mechanisms behind thermal
fatigue cracking of surface engineered materials are not yet
fully explored.
In this study, various combinations of surface engineered
hot work tool steel systems were evaluated in thermal
fatigue, including diffusive thermochemical surface treatments (boriding, nitriding, and Toyota diffusion (CrC)), and
physically vapour deposited (PVD) coatings (CrC, CrN and
TiAlN), used as single-layers or on top of a nitrided layer
(duplex treatment). Untreated specimens of each tool steel
grade were used as references. The test is based on cyclic
induction heating and internal cooling of hollow cylindrical
test rods [21]. Additionally, the surface strain is continuously recorded during thermal cycling through a non-contact laser speckle technique.

2. Experimental
2.1. Materials and characterisation
Three Uddeholm hot work tool steels, Orvar Supreme
(premium AISI H13 grade), QRO 90 Supreme and Hotvar,
were used as test material. Their nominal chemical compositions, and hardening (austenitizing, followed by air
quenching) and tempering treatment are given in Table 1.
The austenitizing treatment gives a nominal austenite grain
size of about ASTM 10 for Orvar, and about ASTM 9 for
QRO 90 and Hotvar. All heat treatments resulted in different
microstructures of tempered martensite. The heat treatments
were followed by grinding to a surface roughness (Ra) of
0.38 F 0.05 Am, as obtained by optical surface profilometry.
The Orvar specimens were further ground and polished with
1-Am diamond paste in a last step to a surface roughness
(Ra) of 20 F 14 nm. Test specimens of each tool steel grade
of these conditions were used as references, denoted Orvar,
QRO 90, and Hotvar, respectively.

217

Table 1
Nominal chemical compositions in wt.% and austenitizing (A) and
tempering (T) treatments of the tool steels
Steel grade

Si

Mn

Cr Mo

A
T
[jC/min] [jC/h]

QRO 90 Supreme 0.38 0.30 0.75 2.6 2.25 0.9 1020/30 625/2
2
Orvar Supreme
0.39 1.0 0.4 5.2 1.4 0.9 1025/30 600/2
2
Hotvar
0.55 1.0 0.75 2.6 2.25 0.85 1050/30 575/2
2

Prior to surface engineering, the specimens were ground

and polished as the Orvar specimens above (Ra 20 F 14 nm).
The QRO 90 specimens were surface treated by
boriding (denoted Q-B), Toyota diffusion to generate
CrC (denoted Q-TDP CrC), or plasma nitriding to produce a diffusion zone without any iron nitride compound
layer. The first letter in the denotations of the surface
engineered materials denotes always the substrate material
and the others the engineering process. The boriding
process was followed by hardening and tempering (at
1030 jC and 2
2 h at 625 jC, respectively), while the
TDP treatment was followed by tempering 2 h at 625 jC
and 2 h at 600 jC. All plasma nitrided QRO 90 specimens were duplex-treated with a PVD CrN coating
(denoted Q-DCrN) on top of the nitrided layer. Singlelayered PVD CrN coatings (denoted Q-CrN) were also
applied on the QRO 90 specimens. The PVD CrN coatings were produced in a multi-arc process.
The Orvar and Hotvar specimens were treated by gas
nitriding (denoted O-GN, H-GN) or plasma nitriding. All
plasma nitrided specimens of these two tool steel grades
were duplex-treated with a PVD CrC (denoted O-DCrC, HDCrC) or a multi-layered PVD TiAlN coating (denoted ODTiAlN, H-DTiAlN) on top of the nitrided layer. The PVD
CrC coatings were produced by an ion plating process, and
the multi-layered PVD TiAlN coatings were produced by an
arc-evaporation process. The 13 treatments resulted in
different surface characteristics, see Table 2, where also
the deposition time and temperature during the boriding,
TDP, and nitriding and/or PVD coating treatments are
included.
Substrate hardness was assessed by Vickers indentations
on polished cross-sections, using a load of 30 kg. For the
specimens treated by boriding, TDP CrC and nitriding, the
depth of the diffusion zone profiles was assessed by microVickers indentations on polished cross-sections, using a load
of 25 g. The diffusion depth was defined as the depth
beneath the coated surface at which the hardness was 50 HV
25 gf higher than the substrate hardness. For the specimens
treated by boriding, the depth is given excluding the
outmost compound layer. The PVD coating thicknesses
were determined by light optical microscopy (LOM) on
polished cross-sections.
Relative hardness of the surface treatments and coatings
was assessed by micro-Vickers indentations on polished
cross-sections and directly on the top of the surface of the
coatings, respectively, using a load of 25 g. For the speci-

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Table 2
Characteristics of the test materials, including deposition time and temperature during the boriding, TDP, and nitriding and/or PVD coating treatments
Denotation

Substrate
hardness
[HV 30 kgf]

Nitriding
hardness
[HV 25 gf]

Diffusion
depth [Am]

Coating
hardness
[HV 25 gf]

Coating
thickness
[Am]

Time and temperature

during surface treatment
[h/jC], [h/jC]a

QRO 90
Q-B
Q-TDP CrC
Q-CrN
Q-DCrN
Orvar
O-GN
O-DCrC
O-DTiAlN
Hotvar
H-GN
H-DCrC
H-DTiAlN

507 F 5
520 F 5
522 F 5
495 F 5
507 F 5
486 F 5
482 F 5
485 F 5
476 F 5
640 F 10
604 F 5
606 F 5
596 F 5

915 F 15

1030 F 30
955 F 30
975 F 30

955 F 20
845 F 25
910 F 25

30 F 2
30 F 2

160 F 3

250 F 15
120 F 10
115 F 10

295 F 5
175 F 10
170 F 10

1740 F 100
1970 F 70
2000 F 100
2060 F 100

1710 F 55
2285 F 170

1690 F 45
2275 F 200

6.1 F 0.1
4.5 F 0.2

5.5 F 0.4
5.5 F 0.7

3.8 F 0.1
2.9 F 0.1

f 25/ f 850
6/1030
/300 400
15/480, /300 400

48/510
/ f 480, /450 500
/ f 480, /450 500

48/510
/ f 480, /450 500
/ f 480, /450 500

a
Single time/temperature values refer to the single treatments, and double values refers to those for the duplex treatments (nitriding followed by PVD
coating).

mens treated by boriding, the surface hardness was measured below the compound layer.
2.2. Thermal fatigue testing
The test equipment is based on cyclic induction heating and internal cooling of hollow cylindrical test rods
with a diameter of 10 mm, a length of 80 mm, and
having a 3-mm axial hole for internal cooling. Surface
strain measurements through a non-contact laser speckle
technique make it possible to calculate the strains induced
in the specimen surface during thermal cycling. An
induction unit (25 kW, 3 MHz) heats the surface layer
of approximately 20 mm of the middle of the test rod.
Continuous cooling is performed by circulating silicon oil
(flow rate c 2.5 l/min) of 60 jC through the specimen,
and also externally with either argon (forced convection),
which also decreases oxidation during the thermal cycling, or air (natural convection).
Argon was used as cooling medium because the tools
are exposed to an environment with reduced oxygen
content during actual die casting. The oxygen in the die
cavity is partly consumed through oxidation of tool material and casting alloy. For the tests in argon, the specimen
was contained in a glass tube and argon was flowing
between the specimen and the glass tube wall. Unfortunately, this glass tube makes it impossible to obtain surface
strain recordings by the laser speckle technique. However,
the surface strains could be recorded during the first 100
cycles in a separate test series performed in air. More
information about this test method is presented elsewhere
[21].
Two temperature cycles were used to simulate aluminium
and brass die casting temperature conditions, see Table 3, in
the following, designated according to their maximum
temperatures, 700 and 850 jC, respectively. The latter
temperature corresponds to the maximum tool surface

temperature during actual brass die casting [22]. The thermal cycles included a steep ramp to the maximum temperature and subsequent cooling to the minimum temperature,
with or without a short holding time ( < 0.1 s) at the
maximum temperature.
Thermal cycling by induction heating above the Curie
transition temperature of Fe (768 jC) does not ideally
generate the temperature profile representative for die
casting of, e.g. brass [22]. Thus, the 850 jC heat cycle
is not as representative for die casting as that to 700 jC,
and only the reference specimens of QRO 90 and those
treated by boriding and TDP were tested to 850 jC. In the
following, only the surface strains for the 700 jC tests are
considered.
Prior to testing, the specimens were pre-oxidised in
order to get a thin oxide layer, which facilitates the
pyrometer temperature control during heating. The reference specimens were pre-oxidised by electrochemical
oxidation in a NaOH-solution at 70 jC for about 5
min, followed by 1-h heat treatment at 200 jC in air
[21]. All surface engineered specimens were pre-oxidised
0.5 h at 600 jC. This temperature, which is comparable
to the tool steel tempering temperature, and the relatively
short time were selected not to affect the mechanical
properties of the tool material. A previous study showed
that 20 000 thermal cycles to 600 jC did not affect the
mechanical properties of these tool steels [21]. A K-type
Chromel-Alumel thermocouple with thin wires (/ 0.13

Table 3
Thermal cycles used in the thermal fatigue tests
Maximum
temperature
[jC]

Minimum
temperature
[jC]

Heating
time [s]

Total cycle
time [s]

External
cooling

700
850

170
170

0.3 0.4
2.2 2.5

14.3 14.4
26.2 26.5

Argon or air
Argon or air

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219

2.3. Evaluation
During the heat cycling, the surface strain is continuously
obtained by the laser speckle technique from the change in the
specimen dimensions, and it is represented as surface strain vs.
temperature. Any thermal fatigue damage of the specimen
surface was revealed using scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). It was further characterised with respect to crack
growth (crack length vs. number of cycles) and crack density
(number of cracks per unit of length) by crack length measurements on polished axial cross-sections by LOM. All evaluations of cracks are based on cracks larger than about 5 Am,
detected along two lines, each of 8-mm length.
Hardness vs. depth profiles and relative coating hardness
after exposure to the heat cycling were assessed by microVickers indentations on polished cross-sections and directly
on the top of the surface of the coatings, respectively, using
a load of 25 g.

3. Results
3.1. Recorded surface strain during thermal cycling

Fig. 1. Example of surface strain recordings (tangential strain) during

thermal cycling to 700 jC in air at equilibrium temperature conditions. (a)
Reference material (QRO 90). (b) Surface engineered QRO 90 systems.

After about four initial thermal cycles, the starting

specimen temperature of 60 jC ( = temperature of cooling
oil) is raised to 170 jC and cyclic equilibrium temperature conditions are established, cp. Table 3. Thereafter, the
surface strain recordings are obtained during almost
identical thermal cycling. When equilibrium temperature

mm) was spot welded to the specimen to measure the

surface temperature during testing. The thin wires enable
rapid response of any change in temperature. Finally, to
obtain a good speckle pattern for the surface strain
measurements, an area of approximately 10
10 mm
located in the middle of the test rods was roughened by
a 1000 mesh abrasive paper. However, for the multilayered PVD coatings of TiAlN, it was not possible to
obtain a good speckle pattern and, therefore, no surface
strain recordings for this material are presented.

Fig. 2. Typical surface cracking after 10 000 cycles to 700 jC in argon (QB, SEM).

Fig. 3. Polished cross-section revealing typical thermal cracks (Q-B, LOM).

(a) 5000 cycles to 700 jC in argon; (b) 500 cycles to 850 jC in argon.

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conditions are established, the surface strain typically

increases with the surface temperature, followed by an
almost constant or slightly increasing strain level during
the first part of the cooling, wherafter it decreases with
temperature, see Fig. 1. After completed cooling, each
surface strain recording forms a closed loop with no
remarkable residual strain at the minimum temperature.
For some materials, the scatter in residual strain at the
minimum temperature was considerable. Note that the
tangential strain eB and axial strain ez is almost identical
(see Fig. 1a). Note also that the surface strain recordings
for the surface engineered materials are comparable to

those of the reference material (see Fig. 1b). No remarkable differences among the tested materials were observed
during the initial 100 heat cycles recorded.
3.2. Surface cracking
Thermal fatigue cracking of a surface engineered tool
steel after thermal cycling to 700 jC is exemplified in Fig.
2. Polished cross-sections revealed that the crack path was
strongly dependent on the maximum temperature during
each cycle. Essentially two different types of crack paths
were distinguished. Relatively straight cracks dominated

Fig. 4. Maximum crack length (a), mean crack length (b), and crack density (c) after cycling to 700 and 850 jC, respectively, in argon. Each pile is the average
value of two to four specimens of each material, and the error bars indicate the maximum and minimum recording.

A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

after heat cycling to 700 jC, cp. Fig. 3a. Both straight and
branched cracks (Fig. 3b) were observed after thermal
cycling to 850 jC.
3.2.1. Crack length and crack density of surface engineered
QRO 90
The crack length was strongly dependent on the number
of cycles and the maximum temperature during each cycle,
see Fig. 4. In addition, the crack density of each material
was almost constant or slightly increasing within the number of cycles tested, for the two maximum cycle temperatures. It is also seen that the crack length and density of
cracks differ significantly among the surface engineered
QRO 90 substrates.

221

Generally, the boriding and TPD surface treatments show

a tendency to increase the crack length and reduce the
density of cracks as compared to the reference QRO 90
steel, especially after thermal cycling to 850 jC, see Fig. 4.
In a relatively early stage of heat cycling to 700 jC, the
single-layered and the duplex-treated CrN coating shows a
tendency to increase the crack length as compared to the
reference material. Later on, the crack characteristics of the
single-layered CrN coating proved almost comparable to the
reference material, whereas the crack length in the duplextreated coating still is longer. In general, it is obvious that
duplex treatment reduces the crack density, as compared to
both the single-layered CrN coating and the reference QRO
90 steel.

Fig. 5. Maximum crack length (a), mean crack length (b), and crack density (c) after cycling to 700 jC in argon. Each pile is the average value of two to four
specimens of each material, except that for O-TiAlN 10 000 cycles at 700 jC which is based on one specimen, and the error bars indicate the maximum and
minimum recording.

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A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

3.2.2. Crack length and crack density of surface engineered

Orvar and Hotvar
The crack length was strongly dependent on the number
of cycles up to 700 jC, and the crack length and density of
cracks varied significantly between the surface engineered
Orvar and Hotvar substrates, see Fig. 5. Again, the crack
density of each material was almost constant or slightly
increasing with the number of cycles.
In general, the gas nitriding treatment increases the
maximum crack length and the crack density as compared
to the reference steels, see Fig. 5. It also decreases the mean
crack length of Orvar and increases that of the Hotvar steel.
In a relatively early stage, all duplex-treated PVD coatings,
except the duplex-treated CrC coating on top of Hotvar,
show comparable crack length or a slight tendency to
increase the crack length as compared to the reference Orvar
and Hotvar steels. Thereafter, there is a tendency that all
duplex treatments increase the crack length as compared to
the reference materials. Generally, all duplex-treated PVD
coatings on top of the Orvar and Hotvar substrates proved to
reduce the crack density as compared to the references.
3.3. Hardness after thermal fatigue
Typically, for the 700 jC experiments the hardness of the
superficial 0.3 1-mm surface layer decreased during the

thermal cycling for all test materials, see Fig. 6a c. Beneath

this depth, the material appears unaffected by the cyclic heat
exposures. Evidently, the hardness of the borided, TDP,
plasma nitrided, and gas nitrided layers is considerably
reduced after the heat cycling. (The profiles do not reveal
the hardness values of the PVD coatings.) The hardness
profile for the single-layered CrN coating (not shown in Fig.
6a) almost coincides with that of the reference steel. Below
the surface engineered layer, the hardness values are almost
identical to those of the references, except for the Hotvar
systems, which show somewhat lower hardness values than
the reference steel, see Fig. 6a c. The hardness values of
the PVD coatings were also significantly decreased after the
thermal cycling. After 10 000 cycles to 700 jC, the hardness
of the PVD coatings of CrN, CrC, and TiAlN was about
1300 F 100, 1050 F 100, and 1700 F 200, respectively. The
hardness levels and the thickness of the softened surface
layer were strongly dependent on the maximum temperature
during each cycle, see Fig. 6, and also on the substrate
material as observed after the 700 jC tests, see Fig. 6a c.
The 850 jC experiments resulted in a dramatic hardness
reduction throughout the whole specimen for all test materials, see Fig. 6d. Again, it is seen that the hardness reduction
of the borided and TDP layers is considerably, and that the
hardness values below the surface engineered layer almost
are identical those of the reference steel.

Fig. 6. Surface hardness vs. depth for the tested materials. (a) QRO 90 systems, (b) Orvar systems, and (c) Hotvar systems after 10 000 cycles to 700 jC in
argon. (d) QRO 90 systems after 1000 cycles to 850 jC. The reference steels are included.

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4. Discussion
4.1. Surface layer conditions during thermal cycling
Induction heating of steel using a frequency of 3 MHz
give rise to very fast heating of only a thin surface layer, of
the order of 10 Am (skin-effect). When applying this
method to the test rods, the thermal expansion of the surface
layer material is retained by the cooler bulk material, cp.
Fig. 1. During the initial cooling phase, the surface contracts
but the material below still expands due to heat conduction
and, thereby, the decrease in surface strain with temperature
is delayed, see Fig. 1.
4.1.1. Stresses in the surface layer
The fact that the thermal strain of the surface layer is
constrained during the thermal cycling exposes the surface
layer material to cyclic stresses. The hypothetical strains
corresponding to these stresses are defined as mechanical
strains emech. Crack nucleation and growth is determined by
fluctuations in emech. Similarly, thermal strains eth defined as
strains without any constraint are defined from the thermal
expansion coefficient of the material a(T) and the minimum
surface temperatures Tmin as:
eth T aT T  Tmin

Thus, emech at any part of the thermal cycle is possible to

deduce from the corresponding values of the surface temperature cycle, thermal expansion coefficient of the material,
and the measured surface strain etot according to:
emech T etot T  eth T

223

minimum mechanical surface strain of each cycle, which for

the reference materials (also the substrate material) was
found to be emech (T = 700 jC) c  0.57 F 0.06% for all
equilibrium temperature cycles up to 700 jC. It coincides
with the maximum surface temperature, cp. Fig. 7.
The fact that the engineered surface layers do not
significantly alter the appearance of the recorded surface
strain as compared to those of the references (cp. Fig. 1)
indicates that the surface strain during heat cycling primarily
is controlled by the deformation of the substrate material
(i.e. tool steel). Thus, the engineered layers are obviously
too thin to have any notable effect on the temperature
distribution below the surface.
The thermally induced mechanical strains (such as those
of Fig. 7) will introduce compressive and tensile stresses in
the surface layer. Although the magnitude of the tensile
stresses imposed during cooling does not exceed the initial
(true) yield stress of these tool materials during thermal
cycling, numerous thermal cracks nucleate and propagate
within the low-cycle fatigue range, cp. Figs. 4 and 5 and
Ref. [21]. The explanation is that presence of local stress
concentrators may cause the tensile stresses to exceed the
tool steel yield stress during these conditions. In addition,
the gradual softening of the tool surface material with the
number of heat exposures considerably degrades the initial
tool steel yield stress values, cp. Fig. 6. Consequently, the
surface material locally will be exposed to cyclic stresses
that cause accumulation of plastic strains after a certain
number of thermal cycles up to 600 850 jC.
4.2. Thermal fatigue cracking

Note that the surface layer conditions above are estimated without any knowledge of the temperature profile below
the surface.
From the surface strain recordings such as those of Fig.
1, and using Eqs. (1) and (2), the three types of surface
strains (i.e. etot, eth, and emech) during heat cycling can be
deduced, see Fig. 7. Similarly, these calculations give the

Fig. 7. Example of surface strain response during thermal cycling to 700 jC

in air at equilibrium temperature conditions (reference material QRO 90).

This study clearly demonstrates that surface engineering

of hot work tool steels generally has a tendency to reduce
the resistance against thermal fatigue cracking. This is
obvious from the characterisation of the maximum crack
length (cp. Figs. 4a and 5a) and the mean crack length (cp.
Figs. 4b and 5b) after thermal cycling. The only positive
effect observed in this study is that duplex treatment reduces
the crack density, cp. Figs. 4c and 5c.
During the initial 5000 and 500 cycles to 700 and 850
jC, respectively, almost all thermal fatigue cracks initiate
and propagate into the materials, cp. Figs. 4 and 5.
Thereafter, some cracks grow deeper into the material
and, thereby, both the maximum and mean crack lengths
increase with the number of cycles, whereas the crack
density saturates at a relatively low number of cycles [4].
The crack lengths and crack density differ significantly
within the whole range of materials tested. Since areas
along each thermal crack are locally stress relieved, the
crack growth of adjacent cracks is retarded as the larger
ones propagate into the material [23]. Consequently, the
stress at potential crack nucleation sites (e.g. local stress
concentrators due to topographical features and material
inhomogeneities [4,18,19,24]) close to each crack is also
reduced.

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4.2.1. Reference steels

The thermal crack advancement in the reference steels
during heat cycling to 700 jC has a tendency to be suppressed by a higher initial tool steel hardness [21], cp. Figs.
4 and 5. A higher hardness reduces the accumulation of
plastic strains in the surface layer. Note that any initial
ranking in hardness among the reference steels is maintained, cp. Fig. 8. The favourable effect from the higher
hardness is further elucidated by the observation that the
harder Hotvar reference has a lower crack density than the
softer QRO 90 steel, see Figs. 4c and 5c. However, the
Orvar and Hotvar references have approximately the same
crack density levels, see Fig. 5c, in spite of the considerable
differences in hardness, see Fig. 8. This is most likely due to
the fact that the surface roughness prior to testing of Orvar
was much smoother than that of Hotvar, and also that the
deeper cracks in Orvar facilitate stress relief of the surface
layer.
Thermal cycling to 850 jC accelerates the thermal
crack nucleation and advances and promotes crack nucleation at numerous sites as compared to heat cycling to
700 jC, cp. Fig. 4. The higher maximum cycle temperature facilitates rapid softening of the surface layer, and
increases the plastic strain accumulation during each
cycle, cp. Fig. 6a and c. Note that only the QRO 90
steel was tested to 850 jC.
4.2.2. PVD coating
The thin hard single-layered CrN coating on top of the
tool steel does not has any substantial effect on the
thermal crack nucleation and propagation, as shown by
the almost comparable cracking characteristics as the
reference steel, see Fig. 4. This indicates that the PVD
coating/substrate interface and the differences in properties among the materials do not have any practical effect
on thermal crack nucleation and propagation into the
underlying material [18 20], and that the stress distribution in the substrate material not is significantly disturbed.
In addition, the mechanical properties of the tool steel

Fig. 8. Hardness vs. depth for the reference tool steels after 10 000 cycles to
700 jC; constructed from Figs. 6a c.

Fig. 9. Maximum crack length vs. thickness of diffusion layer after thermal
cycling constructed using Table 2 and Figs. 4a and 5a. (a) 5000 and 500
cycles to 700 and 850 jC, respectively. (b) 10 000 and 1000 cycles to 700
and 850 jC, respectively. The solid lines are included to visualise any
correlation.

appear virtually unaffected by the PVD process itself, cp.

Table 2.
4.2.3. General cracking characteristics of diffusion layers
One striking observation for all diffusion layers, i.e.
the borided, TDP, plasma nitrided, and gas nitrided
diffusion layers, is the following. After thermal crack
nucleation during heat cycling to 700 and 850 jC, some
cracks propagate relatively rapidly through the depth of
the diffusion layers, wherafter they meet the substrate
material and advance further, cp. Figs. 4 and 5. Note that,
of these layers, only the borided and TDP layers were
tested to 850 jC. Most diffusion layers have a tendency
to increase the maximum crack length as well as the
mean crack length, as compared to the references, cp.
Figs. 4 and 5.
The hard and brittle nature of these diffusion layers (cp.
Table 2) makes the surface layer material susceptible to
thermal crack propagation by promoting rapid thermal crack
advancement through their thickness. The propagation is
retarded when the cracks encounter a material with sufficiently high toughness [18 20], cp. Figs. 4 and 5. This is
supported by the observation that there is a correlation
between the maximum crack length and the thickness of
the diffusion layer [19], see Fig. 9. The plasma nitrided and
gas nitrided materials, which are those materials with the

A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

thickest diffusion layers, show the longest maximum crack

lengths.
4.2.4. Gas nitriding
The gas nitriding treatment gave some of the most
destructive surface layers of the processes evaluated by
thermal cycling to 700 jC, since it increased both the
maximum crack length and the crack density as compared
to the two reference steels, see Fig. 5. Numerous of surface
cracks are formed during the initial 5000 heat cycles to 700
jC, although the presence of cracks should relieve the local
stresses, cp. Fig. 5. This indicates that gas nitrided layers
make the surface material susceptible to both thermal crack
nucleation and propagation. Note that gas nitrided layers
were applied on Hotvar and Orvar substrates only.
When the cracks have grown through the gas nitriding
diffusion layer, their advancement is more effectively retarded by the initially harder Hotvar substrate than that of
the softer Orvar steel (cp. Figs. 5a and 9), even though the
diffusion layer is somewhat thicker, cp. Table 2. This
reflects again the crucial favourable crack arresting effect
of high tool steel hardness.
4.2.5. Boriding and TDP
The high deposition temperature of the boriding and TDP
processes seems to deteriorate the mechanical properties of
the QRO 90 substrate more than the plasma nitriding and the
PVD processes do, even if this is not reflected by the
substrate hardness numbers, cp. Table 2. This is supported
by the observation that the maximum crack length in the
borided and the TDP treated QRO 90 tool steel are well
beyond the diffusion depths already after relatively few heat
cycles to 700 jC, cp. Figs. 4a and 9. The crack advancement
through the substrate material appears facilitated, and after
10 000 heat cycles to 700 jC, the maximum crack length in
those materials is nearly as long as that in the duplex-treated
steel, in spite of the fact that their diffusion depths are much
thinner, cp. Fig. 9.
In the boriding process, the steel substrate is kept in
contact with a reactive boron containing compound at high
temperature [25,26]. Initially, an iron boride layer is formed
at the surface and grow subsequently in thickness due to
diffusion of boron into the substrate. The diffusion of boron
into the steel substrate drags along elements that are not
soluble in the boride layer (e.g. carbon and silicon) into the
substrate, and causes an enrichment of these elements in a
zone below the boride layer. In the TDP process, the
substrate material is kept in contact with the carbide forming
element chromium at high temperature [25,27]. Initially,
carbon in the steel substrate combines with this element and
forms a carbide layer on the surface. Thereafter, the carbide
layer grows thicker due to further reactions at the carbide
layer interface as a result of diffusion of carbon from the
substrate to the surface. During the process, the carbide
forming element chromium diffuses into the substrate and
forms a solid solution layer beneath the carbide layer.

225

Consequently, the boriding and TDP processes alter the

chemical composition of the substrate material below the
engineered surface layers and, therefore, also the mechanical properties of the substrate surface material. In addition,
the bulk of the substrate material will also be affected by the
high treatment temperatures and subsequent hardening/tempering conditions.
Even though the boriding and TDP processes are detrimental to the crack arresting properties of the substrate
material, they reduce the density of thermal cracks as
compared to the reference steel during thermal cycling to
700 jC, cp. Fig. 4. This effect may be a associated with the
local stress relief of the surface layer provided by the
relatively rapid development of thermal cracks, and also
with the higher hot hardness (or hot yield strength) of the
layers, which reduces the plastic strain during thermal
cycling.
The more rapid development of long cracks during
thermal cycling to 850 jC than to 700 jC relieves the local
stresses in surface layer and obstructs relatively early further
crack nucleation, cp. Figs. 4a,b, and 9. This is supported by
the observation that there is a relatively small difference in
crack density after the tests to 700 and 850 jC, respectively,
cp. Fig. 4c. In addition, the crack branching associated with
the considerably more rapid crack growth during heat
cycling to 850 jC than to 700 jC (cp. Fig. 3) is probably
promoted by intergranular precipitations (e.g. carbides
[6,28], nitrides [4], and borides) generated in the surface
layer material during the diffusion process, heat treatment,
and temperature cycling.
4.2.6. Duplex treatment
It was clearly demonstrated that duplex treatment generally reduces the density of thermal cracks as compared to
both the reference steels and the single-layered CrN coating,
see Figs. 4 and 5. However, the plasma nitrided diffusion
layers are detrimental to the thermal crack propagation
resistance. Most of the duplex treatments have a tendency
to increase the crack length as compared to the references.
The PVD coating on top of the plasma nitrided layer has no
additional effect on the thermal crack nucleation and propagation into the underlying material as mentioned above.
This indicates that the plasma nitriding process prior to
coating obviously has a dominant positive effect to inhibit
crack initiation, even though it increases the sensitivity to
crack advancement through the surface layer material.
Simplified, the higher hot hardness (or hot yield strength)
of the surface layer material, as compared to that of the
substrate material (cp. Table 2), reduces the plastic surface
strain during thermal cycling and, consequently, the driving
force for crack initiation [16,20].
Again, the crack advancement below the diffusion depth
has a tendency to be more effectively hindered by the
initially harder Hotvar substrate than that of the softer Orvar
steel, cp. Figs. 5a and 9. However, the QRO 90 substrate has
a tendency to facilitate crack arrest even better than the

226

A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

Hotvar substrate, in spite of its lower initial hardness, cp.

(Figs. 4a, 5a, and 9). The reason is that the hardness at the
crack tip after 10 000 cycles at 700 jC is higher for the QRO
90 than for the Hotvar substrate, cp. Figs. 6a,c, and 10.
4.3. Softening
Thermal cycling to 700 and 850 jC, respectively, cause
very pronounced softening of the surface layer of all surface
engineered materials and reference steels, see Fig. 6. After
10 000 heat cycles to 700 jC, the initial hardness of the
surface engineered layers is reduced approximately within
the range of 20 45%, cp. Fig. 6a c. For the borided and
TDP layers, 1000 cycles to 850 jC correspond almost to the
same hardness reduction as 10 000 cycles to 700 jC, cp. Fig.
6a and d. The multi-layered TiAlN coating showed the least
softening of the three various PVD coating materials tested,
and the TDP CrC layer showed less hardness reduction than
the boriding layer, cp. Fig. 6. This indicates a higher thermal
stability of these two ceramic compounds. Even though the
hardness reduction of the borided and TDP layers and PVD
coatings was considerable, the initial ranking among the
various layers is unaffected by the thermal cycling. For the
plasma and gas nitrided layers, the thermal stability during
the thermal cycling appears to be influenced by the substrate
material tempering resistance, decreasing according to the
following order: QRO 90, Hotvar, and Orvar, cp. Fig. 6a c.
Note that gas nitrided layers were applied on Hotvar and
Orvar substrates only.
It has been shown that the isothermal annealing above
the deposition temperature of thin hard arc-evaporated PVD
coatings of CrN [29] and TiCxN1  x [30] results in significant relaxation of the intrinsic compressive residual stresses
typically present in as-deposited PVD films. Thus, it is
expected that any advantage from the residual compressive
stresses in the as-deposited single-layered or duplex-treated
PVD coatings is removed, since the temperature during each
thermal cycle reach well above the deposition temperature
levels during PVD coating, cp. Table 2. The observation that
the coating hardness values are considerably reduced after
10 000 cycles to 700 jC and the fact that intrinsic compres-

sive stresses contribute to the coating hardness support this

hypothesis.
The considerably greater softening caused by the 850 jC
heat cycles than those to 700 jC, see Fig. 6, is partly due to
the fact that the heating rate is very much retarded above the
Curie transition temperature (768 jC). This prolongs the
surface layer exposure to temperatures above the Curie
transition temperature, which increases the temperature
through the whole specimen. At a certain depth, the temperature conditions favour secondary hardening through
precipitation of tempering carbides, cp. Fig. 6d.
Naturally, the softening of the material below the surface
engineered layer during the thermal cycling is determined
by the properties of the substrate material, cp. Fig. 6.
However, if the initial substrate hardness levels for the
surface engineered Hotvar systems had been equal to the
hardness of the reference steel (see Table 2), there had most
likely been a complete overlap between these hardness
profiles and the one of the reference steel, cp. Fig. 6c.
4.4. Surface engineered systems for die casting applications
In selection of a surface engineered system for maximum
tool life and performance in die casting applications, the
thermal fatigue cracking performance as well as the resistance against other failure mechanisms (e.g. erosion, corrosion and soldering) have to be considered. The general
observation from this study was that surface engineering
did not show any positive effects on thermal fatigue
cracking. However, if a hot working tool has to be surface
engineered for other reasons, the duplex treatment appears
to have the best thermal fatigue cracking performance with
respect to crack density, and the single-layered CrN coating
the best resistance against thermal crack propagation (almost comparable to the reference steel). If a duplex-treated
system is selected, the plasma nitrided diffusion layer below
the PVD coating should be relatively thin with an optimised
combination of yield strength, ductility, and tempering
resistance; thus, combining the possibility of reducing the
crack density, minimising the crack propagation, and retaining the mechanical properties in the surface layer during
thermal exposure.

5. Conclusions
In this study, a selection of hot work tool steel grades was
surface modified and experimentally evaluated in thermal
fatigue. The following conclusions can be made.


Fig. 10. Example of hardness vs. depth for duplex-treated materials after
10 000 cycles to 700 jC; constructed from Figs. 6a c.

Through cyclic induction heating and internal cooling of

hollow cylindrical test rods, the mechanisms of surface
cracking typical of hot working were excellently
reproduced.
 By recording the surface strain, which is impossible
during actual die casting, information of the surface

A. Persson et al. / Surface & Coatings Technology 191 (2005) 216227

strains and stresses behind thermal fatigue failure could

be revealed.
Generally, the resistance against thermal crack propagation of surface engineered tool steels is determined by the
mechanical properties of the substrate material.
The overall conclusion is that thermal fatigue cracking of
hot work tool steels is negatively influenced by surface
engineering, and the reason is that the mechanical
properties of the tool material deteriorate during the
engineering process.
Of the processes evaluated, duplex treatment was the
least destructive. It gave a lower crack density than the
reference steel, but the diffusion layer is more susceptible
to crack propagation.
The single-layered CrN coating showed almost comparable thermal fatigue cracking resistance as the reference
material, and the substrate material was virtually
unaffected by the PVD process.
None of the engineered surface layers gave any virtual
change of the surface strain recordings as compared to
those of the references. This indicates that they are too
thin to give any notable effect on the temperature
distribution below the surface.
Thermal fatigue causes considerable softening of the
surface engineered layers, as well as of the tool steel
substrates. However, the initial ranking in hardness
among the various surface layers and the reference tool
steels is not affected.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Uddeholm Tooling AB, Tour
and Andersson AB, Bodycote Heat treatment AB, Balzers
Coating AB, and ABB Motors AB. The financial support
from the Swedish Knowledge Foundation is also acknowledged. Special thanks to Mrs. Anna Persson for all
valuable help with specimen preparation for light optical
microscopy.
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