Bainite has been obtained by heat treatment at temperatures as low as 125°C in a high carbon, high silicon steel. This has had the effect of greatly refining the microstructure, which is found to have a strength in excess of 2·5 GPa together with an ability to flow plastically before fracture. Such properties have never before been achieved with bainite. In this paper metallographic details are reported of the very fine bainitic microstructure associated with the incredibly low transformation temperature, where during the time scale of the experiments, an iron atom cannot diffuse over a distance greater than ∼10-17 m. Yet, the microstructure has a scale in the micrometre range, consistent only with a displacive mechanism of transformation. © 2002 IoM Communications Ltd.Peer Reviewe

Recent work has shown that bainitic ferrite plates produced by transformation at low temperatures can be as thin as 20 nm with a hardness in excess of 650 HV. However, it may take several days in order to achieve the required degree of transformation at low temperatures. In this work we report methods for accelerating the rate of reaction without compromising strength.

It is demonstrated that in a high-carbon steel where carbide precipitation is suppressed, bainite can be obtained by isothermal transformation at temperatures as low as 200°C. The time taken for nucleation at this temperature can be many days, but the transformation results in the growth of extremely thin platelets of bainite, so thin that the hardness of the resulting steel can be greater than 600 HV.