Influence of Boron on transformation behavior during continuous cooling of low alloyed steels

The phase transformation behavior during continuous cooling of low-carbon (LC) Boron-treated steels was studied. Furthermore, the influence of combining Boron with Nb or Ti or V on transformation kinetics was investigated. Additions of Boron to LC steels have a strong influence on the ferrite transformation. By adding 30 ppm Boron to a Boron-free reference alloy the suppressing effect on the ferrite transformation is most pronounced, whereas 10 ppm Boron has almost no effect and 50 ppm Boron the same effect as 30 ppm Boron. Thereby the critical Boron concentration for transformation kinetics in this alloying concept is 30 ppm. The combination of Boron with Ti shifts the phase fields to shorter times and increase the ferrite start temperature, whereas the combination of B+V and B+Nb only affects the ferrite start temperature. Hardness values are mostly influenced by the presence of Boron and strongly depend on the cooling rate.