Effect of Tempering Heat Treatment on Medium Manganese Steels

Medium Mn steels, whose importance has increased especially for the automotive industry in recent years, are also considered as new generation advanced high strength steels. The superior properties exhibited by these steels depend on the chemical composition, preforming method and thermal cycles. Conventional, intercritical and tempering heat treatments and combinations of these thermal processes have frequently been the subject of research for these steels. In this study, conventional heat treatment and tempering were applied together and their effects on the microstructure and mechanical properties of mid-Mn steels were investigated. The effect of tempering heat treatment on medium Mn steels was investigated by correlating the data obtained from SEM, EDS and XRD analyses with the results of tensile and hardness tests.