The martensitic transformation was studied by in situ and ex situ experiments in two high-carbon, 0.54 and 0.74 wt pct C, steels applying three different cooling rates, 15 °C/s, 5 °C/s, and 0.5 °C/s, in the temperature range around Ms, to improve the understanding of the evolution of martensite tetragonality c/a and phase fraction formed during the transformation. The combination of in situ high-energy X-ray diffraction during controlled cooling and spatially resolved tetragonality c/a determination by electron backscatter diffraction pattern matching was used to study the transformation behavior. The cooling rate and the different Ms for the steels had a clear impact on the martensitic transformation with a decrease in average tetragonality due to stronger autotempering for a decreasing cooling rate and higher Ms. A slower cooling rate also resulted in a lower fraction of martensite at room temperature, but with an increase in fraction of autotempered martensite. Additionally, a heterogeneous distribution of martensite tetragonality was observed for all cooling rates.

The impact of cooling rate during high-pressure gas quenching on the fatigue performance of low-pressure carburized spur gears was studied for steel grades 20MnCr5 and 17NiCrMo6-4. The results show an increased fatigue limit by 10 to 11% when applying a slower cooling rate for both steel grades. Moreover, for 20MnCr5 the slower cooled gears show an increase in compressive residual stresses by 130 MPa compared to the faster cooling, although no significant difference was observed for 17NiCrMo6-4. It is also seen that the cooling rate affects the core hardness for both steel grades, while other properties like surface hardness, case-hardness depth and martensite variant pairing were unaffected. The results for the retained austenite content and average martensite unit size show no clear effect of the cooling rate. The possible influence of different carbon distributions after quenching for the two used cooling rates on the carbide precipitation and fatigue limit is discussed.

Process modifications of the gas quench sequence for low pressure carburized gears can increase the performance of up to 22 %, compared to direct gas quenching. Several test series were made with different interruptions of the gas quenching sequence, near the martensite start temperature M _s . The quench interruption resulted in an increase in magnitude of compressive residual stress which was attributed to temperature homogenization and rearrangement of local stresses. The increased fatigue strength was a result of the combination of enhancement of the compressive residual stress state, and of mechanical stabilization of austenite.