Mechanical improvement of hardening and tempering steel with the addition of SiC and TiCN nanoparticles in the steel melt

Novel processing technologies have allowed the reinforcement of several steel grades and alloys through the fine dispersion of different types of particles. However, the addition of ceramic particles in the steel melt causes agglomeration and coarsening phenomena. For this reason, little research has been carried out to add ceramic particles in steel in the traditional steelmaking process. Here we report a hardened and tempered steel grade that is reinforced for the first time through the addition of ceramic nanoparticles, such as TiCN and SiC, into the steel melt at laboratory scale. The results obtained from the tensile tests and hardness measurements reveal the mechanical behaviour of the steel grade is enhanced after the addition of the nanoparticles. KEYWORDS: Hardened and tempered steel; Nanoparticle; Laboratory scale casting; Microstructure; Grain refinement; Solid solution hardening; Mechanical properties