The carburizing-quenching-tempering process is generally conducted on heavy-duty gear in order to obtain favorable comprehensive mechanical performance. Different mechanical properties could be produced by carbon partition and precipitation. In this study, the carburizing-quenching-tempering process was carried out on low-carbon alloy steel in order to investigate the influence of microstructure evolution and precipitate transition on mechanical behavior and wear resistance under different carburizing/tempering durations. Favorable comprehensive mechanical property and wear resistance could be obtained in favor of long durations of carburizing/tempering. A fatigue-wear model was proposed to describe fatigue crack evolution and damage mechanism on the basis of wear features.
Keywords: carbon partition; mechanical property; precipitation; tempering; wear.