Rolling Contact Fatigue Resistance of Cryogenically Treated AISI 440C Steel

Abstract

AISI 440C is a high carbon martensitic stainless steel, primarily used in bearing applications. For this study, one group of AISI 440C steel disks was quenched in oil and tempered. Another group was soaked in liquid nitrogen (− 196 °C) immediately after quenching for 5 h and then tempered. The resulting microstructures were analyzed as well as the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) performance using two methodologies, with and without artificial defects. It was found that the microstructural modifications generated by the cryogenic treatments did not improve significantly the RCF resistance of the material. However, this work supports the use of artificial defects as a valid methodology for conducting accelerated rolling contact fatigue experiments.