ABSTRACT
A comparative study of the wear behavior of deep cryogenically treated vis-à-vis
conventionally treated AISI D2 steel has been made to critically examine the extent of
improvement in wear resistance of tool steels by cryotreatment. A series of experiments
have been done to determine dry sliding wear resistance together with examinations of
the worn surfaces and generated debris, characterization of the microstructures, and
measurement of the hardness values of the differently heat treated steels. The obtained
results unambiguously assist to infer that cryotreatment substantially improves wear
resistance of D2 steel, but the extent of improvement is a strong function of the test
load. These observations have been explained with appropriate identification of the
operative wear mechanisms at different test conditions. Microstructural
characterizations reveal that the improvement in hardness and wear resistance by
cryotreatment is due to near complete removal of soft retained austenite with
concurrent increase in the amount of secondary carbides and tempered martensite.