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A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF CRYOGENIC TREATMENT ON TOOL STEEL PROPERTIES
Conclusion:
From experiential tests, it was found that the wear resistance of samples soaked at -310°F were approximately 2.6 times greater than the wear resistance for tool steel samples soaked at -120°F. Thus, although soaking at the higher temperature (-120°F) does not improve the wear resistance of such tool steels as 52100, D-2, A-2, M-2, and 0-1 by factors ranging from 1.2 to 2.0 soaking at the lower temperature (-310°F) improves the wear resistance by factors ranging from 2.0 to 6.6. For cryogenic treatment to the most effective, the data indicated that temperatures below -250°F are necessary, and for some alloys, even lower temperatures are necessary, to see significant improvements in wear resistance.
By: Dr. Randall F. Barron, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana