Boron in Heat-Treatable Steels: A Review

The science and technology of boron addition to heat-treatable steels are explained. The aim is to address the following: How to add boron to steel (i.e., the manufacturing aspects of boron addition to steel)? What precautions are necessary when alloying boron to steel, in terms of composition (mainly nitrogen, aluminum, and titanium contents), processing and heat treatment (i.e., material and process robustness and reproducibility for a consistent steel quality)? Where does boron go in steel (i.e., the state of boron, interstitial or substitutional solute, precipitate or a complex with other alloying elements; as well as the location of boron, i.e., dissolved as a solute in the grain or segregated at the grain boundary)? Which characterization methods are suitable for the detection of the very small amounts of boron (<30 wt ppm) in heat-treatable steels? What does boron do in steel (i.e., its effect on hardenability and mechanical properties, specifically impact toughness)? How does it do and what it does (i.e., the physical mechanism by which it influences the properties)? How much boron is really required to achieve the desired properties in heat-treatable steels (i.e., recommendations for the optimum boron content)?