The influence of deep cryogenic treatment on the properties of high-vanadium alloy steel

Deep cryogenic treatment can improve the mechanical properties of many metallic materials, but there are few reports of the effect of deep cryogenic treatment on high-vanadium alloy steel. The main objective of this work is to investigate the effect of deep cryogenic treatment on the microstructure, hardness, impact toughness and abrasive wear resistance of high-vanadium alloy steel. The results show that large amounts of small secondary carbide precipitation after deep cryogenic treatment and microcracks were detected and occurred preferentially at carbide/matrix interfaces; except for the hardness, the mechanical properties increased compared to those of the conventional treatment sample. By increasing the deep cryogenic processing time and cycle number, impact toughness and abrasive wear resistance can be further improved, the carbide contents continuously increase, and the hardness decreases.