The Effect of Nitrogen on the Cold Forgeability of 1020 Steel by Tricia J. Douthit Dept of Met. & Mat. Engr. Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO 80401 (C.1. Van Tyne, Advisor) Submitted to FIERF Forging Achievement Award August 24, 2000Introduction ‘An undergraduate thesis project for Ms. Tricia J. Douthit, a senior in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, was initiated in January of 1997. The program was operated through the ASPPRC under the direction of Dr. Van Tyne. All the experimental work was completed by December 1997 as part of Ms Douthit's two semester senior thesis course. This project is on cold forming ductility similar to the work of E.C. Oren (1). Oren showed with a systematic approach the effect of carbon on the mechanical behavior of plain carbon steels below the A, temperature, His data have been very useful to the cold forging industry in assessing the compatibility of various steels for their operation. The focus of the present student is to assess the effect of nitrogen on the mechanical properties of carbon Steel. ‘The results should provide further information necessary for assessing the potential applications of different steel alloys in the cold forging industry The primary goal of the project is to measure the mechanical properties (e.g. yield strength, tensile strength, ductility, and strain hardening parameters) as a function of nitrogen content at cold forming temperatures. ‘The ant pated result of this project is to determine how the nitrogen level fluences the cold forgebility of steelBackground Cold Forging Some of the advantages for cold forming are high production rates, excellent dimensional tolerances and surface finishes of forges parts, significant savings in material and machining, and higher tensile strengths in the forged part than in the original material, because of strain hardening and favorable grain flow to improve strength. All materials that exhibit ductility at room temperature can be cold forged; for example AISI 1020 (2). Cold formability is a material property that depends on the mechanical properties as well as the shape and size of the part. Therefore, the shape, size and particular steel grade must be considered when discussing the cold formability of steels. ‘The true stress-true strain curve are affected (form and slope) not only be the material and its condition but also by the rate of deformation and the temperature. In practice, determination of cold formability the tensile strength of a material instead of the flow stress is normally used as the basis, as the tensile test is casy to perform. Reduction of area values from 60 to 70% are very good while 50 to 60% reductions provide sufficient deformability (3) In cold forming, the strain hardening rate is proportional to the local references truc strain. High strain hardening is beneficial because it leads to higher values of properties such as yield stress and tensile strength for a given true strain. On the other hand, high strain hardening necessitates an annealing operation to enable further cold forming. The most important influence on the two properties (i . the flow stress and the deformability) that determine formability is the microstructures and its alteration as a result of deformation. Where higher deformation must be achieved, annealing is necessary to minimize the effect of strain hardening.