In order to develop a third-generation automobile steel with powerful strength and elongation, we propose a method through high temperature quenching and two-phase region reverse-phase transformation annealing to develop such steel with 0.13% C and 5.4% Mn. To investigate the microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of manganese steel, SEM, XRD and TEM are employed in our experiments. Experimental results indicate that the microstructure after quenching is mainly lath martensite microstructure with average of lath width at 0.5 μm. The components of the steel after along with reverse-phase transformation annealing are ultra-fine grain ferrite, lath martensite and different forms of austenite microstructure. When the temperature at 625 °C, the components of the steel mainly includes lath martensite microstructure and ultra-fine grain ferrite and the fraction of austenite volume is only 5.09%. When the annealing temperature of reverse-phase transformation increase into 650 °C and 675 °C, the austenite appears in the boundary of the ferritic grain boundary and the boundary of lath martensite as the forms of bulk and lath. The phenomenon appears in the bulk of austenite, and the size of is 0.22 μm, 0.3 μm. The fraction of austenite volume is 22.34% at 675 °C and decreases into 9.32% at 700 °C. The components of austenite mainly includes ultra-fine grained ferrite and lath martensite. Furthermore, the density of decreases significantly, and the width of martensite increases into 0.32 μm. In such experimental settings, quenching at 930 °C with 20 min and at 675 °C with 30 min reverse-phase transformation annealing, the austenite volume fraction raises up to 22.34%.
Keywords: austenite; medium manganese steel; reverse transformation annealing; strength-ductility combination; ultra-fine grained ferrite.