From last epoch till to date, AISI 4340 and AISI 4140 have been widely used in different engineering applications. These applications include bolt, screws, gears, drive shafts, crane shaft and piston rods for engines due to its upright mechanical properties, cost-effective and easily available in market. In present work, deep cryogenic treatment effect on the mechanical properties of AISI 4340 and AISI 4140 have been studied. Present work was carried out at laboratory scale and can be extended for mass production. Our work is simple, straight forward safe and economical. In our work, samples were heat treated in simple muffle furnace and followed by cryogenic treatment in liquid nitrogen. Before cryogenic treatment, all samples were normalized at 860°C to obtain homogenized micro structure. Samples were also compared conventionally heat treatment with quenched in oil quenchant. Experimental results showed that after cryogenic treatment with tempering treatment, one could easily increase the tensile strength, impact toughness and hardness. Advanced optical microscopy (IMM 901) and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), FIT Quanta 200 methods have also been deployed to reveal and interpret the internal structure of samples. It was found from micro structure that cryogenic treated sample increases the impact strength, hardness and tensile strength as compared conventional heat treated quenching approaches.

The nickel aluminides are commonly employed as a bond coat material in thermal barrier coating systems for the components of aeroengines operated at very high temperatures. However, their lifetime is limited due to several factors, such as outward diffusion of substrate elements, surface roughness at high temperatures, morphological changes of the oxide layer, etc. For this reason, inter-diffusion migrations were studied in the presence and absence of nickel coating. In addition, a hot corrosion study was also carried out. Thus, on one set of substrates, nickel electrodeposition was carried out, followed by a high activity pack aluminizing process, while another set of substrates were directly aluminized. The microstructural, mechanical, and oxidation properties were examined using different characterization techniques, such as SEM-EDS, optical microscopy, XRD, optical emission spectroscopy, surface roughness (Ra), and adhesion tests. In addition, the variable oxidation temperatures were employed to better understand their influence on the roughness, degree of spallation (DoS), and morphology. The results show that AISI 304L substrates do not respond to aluminizing treatment, i.e., no aluminide coating was formed; rather, a nearly pure aluminum (or alloy) was observed on the substrate. On the contrary, successful formation of an aluminide coating was observed on the nickel-electrodeposited substrates. In particular, a minimum amount of migrations were noted, which is attributed to nickel coating. Moreover, the scratch test at 10 N load revealed neither cracking nor peeling off, thereby indicating good adhesion of the aluminide coating before oxidation. The as-aluminized samples were oxidized between 700 °C to 1100 °C in air for 8 h each. The degree of spallation showed an incremental trend as temperatures increased. Likewise, oxide morphologies showed temperature dependence. On the other hand, average surface roughness (from Ra = 2.3 µm to 5.8 µm) was also increased as temperatures rose. Likewise, the mass gain showed linearity as temperatures increased during oxidation. The hot corrosion responses of electrodeposited-aluminized samples were superior among all specimens. An extensive discussion is presented based on the observations noted above.

The oxidation performance at elevated temperatures for Al-Si coated Martensitic Stainless Steel AISI 410 was investigated. The pack aluminizing at 1050°C for 3 h was employed for the co-deposition of Al and Si onto the alloy. The microstructural performance and material’s response towards oxidation and corrosion behavior along with phase transition at 1100°C with various exposure periods have been observed. In particular, the Al₂O₃, Al₂SiO₅, Fe₂SiO₄, Cr₂SiO_4, etc. are the protective oxides, resulting from oxidation, decreasing the DoS. The Al₂O₃ and Al₂SiO₅ are observed as responsible for protective oxide phases. The highest mass gain was obtained during the period of 16 h to 20 h due to the formation of protective oxides. The increment in the degree of spallation has been observed for the oxidation period of 12h to 16 h. The hot corrosion resistance of the bared and the coated sample was observed in a salt-based environment and found satisfactory results for Al-Si coated alloy for a 12 h to 24 h exposure period.