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JOURNAL OF IRON AND STEEL RESEARCH, INTERNATIONAL. 2009, 16(4): 39-43

Properties of 3Cr2W8V Die Steel With Striations Processed by Laser

CHEN

Ij1.3 ,

ZHOU Hong",

ZHANG Zhi-hui" ,

REN Lu-quarr'

O. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Change hun University of Technology. Changchun 130012.
Jilin. China;
2. The Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of the Ministry of Education, Jilin University,
Changchun 130025. Jilin. China;
3. The Key Laboratory for Terrain Machinery Bionics Engineering of the
Ministry of Education. Jilin University. Changchun 130025, Jilin. China)
Abstract: The striations on the surface of 3Cr2W8V die steel were processed by laser. The microstructure, hard-

ness, wear resistance and thermal fatigue behavior of the specimens processed by laser were measured. The appearance and mechanism of thermal fatigue crack propagation in the zone processed by laser were observed and discussed.
The results show that the wear resistance and thermal fatigue resistance of materials processed by laser are all better
than those of the unprocessed material. The processed zone by laser plays a role in baffling wearing process and crack
propagation. The pile-nail effect of processed zone is the main factor for improving the wear resistance and thermal
fatigue resistance of material.
Key words: laser processing; die steel; property

Natural biomaterials have some unique properties and functions and have attracted many researchers' interest, including their structures, mechanical
properties, physical and chemical behavior and their
biomimetics. Related researches show that there
are, respectively, convex, reticulate, striate, etc.
shapes on body surfaces of some soil animals, such
as the dung beetle and mole-cricket, etc. Researches
in tribology and bionics show that this kind of nonsmooth biont surface can break one consecution and
lower the resistance of friction in crawling process,
so eases consumedly the harm to the body surface,
thus their wear resistance is superior'{r", The characteristic of biont that adapts to the survival environment has emerged gradually through hundreds of
millions of years of evolution and optimization'P'!".
Practices also indicate that not the surface with more
uniform microstructure has more excellent property,
but the property of material with nonuniform microstructure excels on the contrary. It has been found that
the wear resistances of cast iron[5.6] and 3Cr2W8V
die steel[?] processed by laser are markedly improved. The 3Cr2W8V is used as die steel. Wear

and fatigue are main failure mechanisms. How to

improve the properties and life-time of materials is
always one of the problems attracting material researchers with the developing of industry-'". The
surface of metallic material was processed by laser
imitating the animals' body surface in this article,
which provides the fixed amount of experimentation
foundation and theories' basis for processing advanced parts and die.

Experimental Procedure

The compositions of 3Cr2W8V die steel in the

experiment are shown in Table 1. The size of the
specimens used to wear testing was 6 mm long, 6 mm
wide and 30 mm high. The size of specimens used to
thermal fatigue testing was 40 mm long, 20 mm
wide and 3 mm thick, and a hole was drilled in one
side of every specimen so that the specimen could be
fixed onto the thermal fatigue test machine. The diameter of each hole is 3 mrn,
The striate surfaces on specimens were manufactured using Y AG laser imitating the striate shape
of dung beetle surface. The distributing spacing be-

Foundation Item, Item Sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (50635030)
Bi~raphy,

CHEN Li097I-). Female. Doctor. Associate Professor;

E-mail: chli0423@I26.com:

Revised Date: November 26. 2006

 40

Journal of Iron and Steel Research. International

Table 1

Chemical composition of test steel

Si

Mn

Cr

O. 35

O. 30

O. 40

2. 60

8. 02

O. 40

0.025

%
Fe

O. 025 Balance

tween bordered striations is 1. 2. 3. and 4 mrn , respectively. The width and depth of unit are O. 9 and
0.3 mm , respectively. And specimens used to wear
testing and fatigue testing are shown in Fig. 1 and
Fig. 2. respectively. The laser current intensity is
200 A; the laser frequency is 10 Hz; and the laser
impulse duration is 3. 0 ms.
Micro-hardness of the material processed by laser is
measured on a type of HXD-lOOO micro-hardometer.
The distance between the tested two bordered dots
is about 0.2 mm and the load is 1 N. The used
method to test hardness is shown in Fig. 3 in detail.
The wear resistance of the materials is done at a pinon-disk abrasive wear tester. and the load is 1. 3. 5
and 8 N. respectively. The specimens are purged by
ultrasonic before and after the wear experiments.
then the mass loss is measured with a F A2004 current analytical balance. and the mass losses of three
pieces of specimens at the same kind of laser processing condition were averaged. The material worn
opposite with the specimens is carborundum sand
paper. The worn surface processed by laser is observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM).
The thermal fatigue test machine was designed
to install multiple specimens simultaneously in order
to obtain specimens under identical testing conditions.

/1
Fig. 1

3mm

Specimens with striate surface for wear testing

(a) With 2 mm spacing;

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

(b) With 4 mm spacing

Macrophotographs of striate surface for

thermal fatigue test

Micrograph of processed zone and

hardness testing method

The specimens were heated by a resistance furnace

and cooled by running water. The furnace temperatures throughout the test were monitored by a thermocouple attached to the specimens at the center of
its length. The thermal fatigue test was carried out
in a temperature range between 700 'C and 25 C.
and the specimen was free from any applied load. A
complete thermal fatigue cycle included heating for
30 s up to the maximum cycling temperature (700 'C)
in resistance furnace and cooling for 10 s to the minimum cycling temperature (25 'C) in water tank. For
every 200 cycles. the specimens were unloaded for
observing the characteristic. length and propagation
of crack on the specimens surface by optical microscope and stereornicroscope , till the destined times
of cycles.

Vol. 16

Results and Discussion

2. I Microstructure and microhardness of zone processed by laser

Fig. 3 is the microstructure of zone processed by
laser. The white and bright crescent zone is the
hardened zone in which the microstructure is very
fine [in Fig. 4 (a) J. and the black circle is the heat
affect zone near the matrix material with coarser
grain [in Fig. 4 (b)].
Fig. 5 is the hardness curve of specimens with
different distributing spacing striations processed by
laser. With the spacing broadening. the micro-hardness of the striations increases. As a result of the
distributing spacing being bigger. the area of the
matrix is bigger and the cooling rate is quicker rela-

 41

Properties of 3Cr2W8V Die Steel With Striations Processed by Laser

Issue 4

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -------------

( a) Processed zone;

Fig.4

Cb) Matrix

Microstructure of material
Table 2

1200

4mm

Results of mass losses of specimens with different

spacing striations processed by laser

Spacing
Mass loss/ I 0 '

I mm

2 mm

:0 mm

Unprocessed

10, 2

II. 8

12, 2

18. 3

Table 3 Mass loss of specimens with 2 mm spacing

striations processed by laser under different load
200

L.-

o
Fig. 5

.....

~_~_~_~~_

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
Distance from edge of striation/mm

1.2

Hardness curve of surfaces with different

spacing striations processed by laser

tively , so that the microstructure is finer and the

micro-hardness of unit is higher. But the difference
is not very obvious as shown in upside of Fig. 5. In
'addition, the hardness of processed zone is obviously
higher than that of the matrix material.

2.2

Wear resistance

Table 2 shows that the mass losses of specimens with different spacing striations are less than
that of unprocessed specimen, that is, the wear resistance is superior to that of unprocessed specimen.
The wear resistance of material processed by laser
improves along with the decrease of the distributing
distance. When the spacing between bordered striations is 1, 2, 3 mm , the wear resistance of the striate specimen is 1. 79, 1. 55, and 1. 50 times of that
of unprocessed surface, respectively.
Table 3 is the mass loss of specimens with 2 mm
spacing striations processed by laser under different
load. The mass loss increases with the increase of
load. When the load is 1. 3, 5 and 8 N, respectively,

Load
Mass loss/10--

1N

:ON

10.2

11. 8

8N

12.2

18. :J

the mass loss is 1, 1. 11, 1. 20 and 1. 72 times of

that of the specimen loaded under 1 N. There is no
obvious difference in the mass loss when the load
changes below some value. When the load exceeds
some value, the mass loss of material markedly increases. The results show that the zone processed
by laser is a contribution to improve the wear resistance of material.
The force loading on the abrasive particle is divided to vertical and horizontal stress component
during abrasive particle wearing. The first one
makes abrasive particles penetrate into the surface of
material, and the later makes abrasive particles slide
on the surface, so the cutting results in the furrow and
debris appearing on the surface seen from Fig. 6.
The abrasive particles slide on the horizontal
surface at the beginning of wearing. After wearing,
some distance debris come being when the abrasive
particles touch in softer matrix material. thus the
depth of surface shallows. However, the number of
furrow and debris is all less, and the surface is higher
than the softer matrix, so the abrasive particles
must get across a boss when the abrasive particles

 42

Journal of Iron and Steel Research, International

Bouncing

Fig. 6

Process of abrasive particle wear

fall across the harder processed zone seen from

Fig. 7. The vertical stress component (PI) is less
than that (P) on the horizontal surface of matrix
when the abrasive particles slide over the boss.
i. e. the load decreases. At the same time, harder
processed zone can make the moving of the abrasive
particles turn from sliding to rolling over. so the
contacting area decreases. The projecting part stays
bearing load and make the abrasive particles obtuse.
The concave part gathers energy to protect matrix
and adjust the stress status. Thus, the zone processed by laser plays a role in baffling and decreasing
wearing, the mass loss decreased greatly, and as a
result. the wear resistance of the material with striations processed by laser is improved to some extent[7] .

2. 3

Thermal fatigue test

After 4 000 thermal cycles of thermal fatigue, it

can be seen that on the surface of unprocessed specimen, there are many thermal fatigue cracks with
zigzag path and distributing in a cluster. However.
on the surface of specimen with 4 mm spacing striations, the crack is just a few in the number and relatively short in the length; and for the specimen with
2 mm spacing striations. there is no crack on its sur-

Vol. 16

face. There are fourth cracks on unprocessed specimen in which the length of four cracks is more than
5 mrn , and six is less than 1 mm. However. on the
surface of specimen with 4 mm spacing striation, the
number of crack is only six which include one more
than 1 mm and three less than 1 mm. Evidently. the
number of crack on the surface of unprocessed specimen is much more than that of the specimens with
striations processed by laser. This indicates that the
specimens with striations have a superior thermal fatigue resistance compared to the unprocessed specimen.
The appearances of thermal fatigue crack propagation on the surface processed by laser are observed
by optical microscope and stereornicroscope. It can
be seen that the main thermal fatigue crack is
stopped (in Fig. 8) by the striation and bifurcated at
the striation. At the crack tip near the striation. the
path of crack propagation becomes more and more
zigzag. It is obvious that the striations processed by
laser on the surface of steel have better thermal fatigue resistance and positive effect on inhibiting the
crack propagation. The crack must expend more energy to propagate'f ' .
There is difference in microstructure between
processed zone and matrix. The grains of microstructure are finer after being processed by laser.
and there is bigger dislocation density to increase the
number of dislocation, intensity and toughness. The
striations stud on the metal surface such as piles and
nails. and they can retard the initiation and propagation of crack. Thus, the fatigue strength of material
is markedly improved. The effect of striations on the
material surface is similar to the "piles and nails
effect". The pile-nail effect can be described by a
crack retardation mechanism and a stress counteraction mechanism.

PI
P

Fig. 8
Fig. 7

Pressure during wear process

Appearance of fatigue crack propagation on the

surface processed by laser

Properties of 3Cr2W8V Die Steel With Striations Processed by Laser

Issue 4

Fig. 9 shows the model for crack retardation

mechanism of pile-nail effect. When the spacing between bordered two striations (pile-nail) is close,
with the relaxation of thermal stress and the consumption of energy, the kinetics of crack propagation is much less than the resistance resulting from
the striation. As a result, the growth rate of crack
drops rapidly, even the propagation completely terminates at the striation, as shown in Fig. 9 (a).
When the spacing is far, the crack propagation is
held back by the striation firstly and the crack tip
near the striation becomes obtuse. Then, a new
crack nucleation is incubated opposite the striation
along the cycle direction. Afterwards, the main
crack and the crack nucleation grow toward the striation. Finally, the back and forth cracks are connected
by bridge of the striation, as shown in Fig. 9 (b). In
addition, because the striation was processed by laser; the existing compressive residual stress on the
surface would counteract the remote tensile stress
and cause the reduction of effective stress which controls
the thermal fatigue crack growth. It is easily to find
that because of the increase of thermal fatigue
strength and the reduction of effective stress on the
surface processed by laser, the effective stress is
lower than the thermal fatigue limit. As a result,
the thermal fatigue behavior of materials processed
. by laser is markedly improved'Y'?".
(a)

by laser

Striations processed

Crack

--{
--------

Crack

Striations processed

cmc~#i~~~

two bordered striations, the wear resistance of material increases.

(3) The striations have a beneficial effect on
inhibiting thermal fatigue crack initiation and propagation. The existing compressive residual stress on
the surface processed by laser would counteract the
remote tensile stress and cause the reduction of effective stress which controls thermal fatigue crack
growth. The effective stress is lower than the thermal fatigue limit. As a result, the thermal fatigue
behavior of materials processed by laser is markedly
improved.
(4) The "piles and nails effect" of striation is
the most important factor improving the wear resistance and thermal fatigue resistance of material.
References :
[1]

[2J

[3J

[4J

[5J

(a) With bigger spacing;

Fig. 9

[6J

[7J

(b) With narrower spacing

Model for crack retardation mechanism of pile-nail effect

[8J

Conclusions

(1) The striation with higher hardness would

lower load and sever the plough and pare off the abrasive particles, and block the wear progress during
wear process, so the wear resistance is improved.
(2) The wear resistance of material processed
by laser is better than that of unprocessed material.
With the decrease of the distributing spacing between

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