Cryogenic treatment to augment wear resistance of tool and die steels

Cryogenic treatment is a supplementary process to conventional heat treatment process in steels. It is an inexpensive one time permanent treatment affecting the entire section of the component unlike coatings. Though the benefits have been reported widely, there are issues debated upon, in respect of the treatment parameters, extent of benefits experienced in different materials, underlying mechanism and pretreatment conditions. A study on the improvement in wear resistance and the significance of treatment parameters in different materials has been made. It is found that cryogenic treatment imparts nearly 110% improvement in tool life. It is even superior to TiN coatings. The underlying mechanism is essentially an isothermal process. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.