Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Deep Cryogenic Treatment of 100Cr6 Bearing Steel

Cryogenic treatment is the process of cooling a material to extremely low temperatures to generate enhanced mechanical and physical properties. The present investigation examines the effect of a deep cryogenic treatment on the enhancement of mechanical properties, such as the wear resistance, the corrosion resistance, the tensile strength, and the impact strength of the plunger material 100Cr6 bearing steel. An improvement in those properties of the deep cryogenically treated samples over the conventionally heat treated ones was found to be 50, 26, 13, and 27%, respectively. This study suggests that the formation of very small carbides dispersed in the tempered martensite structure can be the main reason for the enhancement of certain mechanical properties, along with the retained austenite transformations.