Evaluation of carbon diffusion in heat treatment of H13 tool steel under different atmospheric conditions

Although the cost of the heat treatment process is only a minor portion of the total production cost, it is arguably the most important and crucial stage on the determination of material quality. In the study of the carbon diffusion in H13 steel during austenitization, a series of heat treatment experiments had been conducted under different atmospheric conditions and length of treatment. Four austenitization atmospheric conditions were studied, i.e., heat treatment without atmospheric control, heat treatment with stainless steel foil wrapping, pack carburization heat treatment and vacuum heat treatment. The results showed that stainless steel foil wrapping could restrict decarburization process, resulting in a constant hardness profile as vacuum heat treatment does. However, the tempering characteristic between these two heat treatment methods is different. Results from the gas nitrided samples showed that the thickness and the hardness of the nitrided layer is independent of the carbon content in H13 steel.