The hot working characteristics of a boron bearing and a conventional low carbon steel

Constitutive hot working constants were determined for an 11 ppm boron low carbon strip steel and compared from 875 to 1140 °C and strain rates of 0.001–2.5 s−1 to a high nitrogen low carbon strip steel. The boron steel showed a different hot working behaviour than the conventional steel with the steady state flow stress about 50–60% higher, the peak strain more than 50% higher and the eventual ferrite grain size about 40% smaller, if compared at the same temperature compensated strain rates or Z values. This difference persisted where the soaking temperature before compression was varied between 1140 and 1250 °C, proving that undissolved AlN in the boron-bearing steel was not responsible. With systematically varied linear cooling rates after hot working, the final ferrite grain size in the boron steel is finer and is independent of the two Z values applied during hot working. Retarded softening by dynamic recrystallisation during hot working in the boron containing steel is probably caused by boron solute drag of moving grain boundaries.