Influence of heat treatment on mechanical

properties of 51CrV4 high strength spring steel

S. Šolić*1, B. Senčič2 and V. Leskovšek3
The durability of the springs is limited by plastic deformation, fatigue and fracturing. From this
point of view, the use of spring steel with following properties is recommended: high ductility and
toughness at operation temperatures from 240uC to z50uC, good hardenability that provides
required mechanical properties even at maximum dimensions. For the manufacturers of springs,
the information relating to the heat treatment of specific spring steel is important. This paper
describes the influence of heat treatment parameters on tensile strength Rm, yield strength Rp0?2,
fracture toughness KIc, impact toughness, Charpy-V as a function of tempering temperature in the
range from 350 to 700uC for a specific austenitising temperature. Also the difference between the
properties given by the mathematical modelling of heat treatment using the computer software
Hardenability and the properties obtained by testing the heat treated samples are presented.
Keywords: Spring steels, Heat treatment, Fracture toughness, Impact toughness, Tensile strength

Introduction which, for a known ultimate tensile strength, allows

Spring steel manufacturers must provide to their cus-
tomers with technical documentation for given steel
because the steels with the same chemical composition
can have different mechanical properties due to different
metallurgical production processes (due to casting, cold
or hot forming, heat treatment, etc.) which differs from
one manufacturer to another. Among the technological
properties of spring steels information concerning the
heat treatment is very important. For chemical compo-
sition and initial microstructure in the normalised state
(ferritezpearlite) which are specified for steel grade
51CrMoV4, mechanical properties for specific applica-
tion depend mainly on appropriately selected para-
meters for heat treatment. Usually, hypoeutectoid steels,
such as spring steel 51CrMoV4, are heat treated con-
ventionally in a furnace with or without protective
atmosphere at the austenising temperature (30 to 50uC
above the Ac3 point) to obtain homogeneous aus-
tenite, and oil cooled to the temperature of the quench
oil, followed by a single tempering at the selected
temperature.
Mechanical properties of the spring steel (i.e. tensile
strength Rm, yield strength Rp0?2, elongation A5 and
necking Z) depend, for a specific austenising tempera-
ture, on tempering temperature in the range 350–700uC.
Also of great importance for this steels is the informa-
tion on impact toughness, Charpy-V, and more and
more users also request measured values of fracture
toughness KIc for the springs after heat treatment,
1
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, I. Lučića 1,
10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
2
Štore Steel d.o.o., Železarska cesta 3, SI-3220 Štore, Slovenia
3
Institute of Metals and Technology, Lepi pot 11, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
*Corresponding author, email sanja.solic@fsb.hr
calculation of the fracture stress sf and the critical defect
size acr at the applied stress.
Hardness, ductility and toughness of
spring steel
The springs durability is limited by plastic deformation,
fatigue and fracturing. One of the possibilities for the
prediction of a spring’s durability is the use of spring
steels with certain properties:
(i) high ductility and toughness at operation tem-
perature (usually 240uC to z50uC)
(ii) high hardenability that provides required me-
chanical properties even in large dimensions
(iii) high strength
(iv) with the ratio between yield and strength of
s0,2/sm.0?9
(v) elongation A5.10%
(vi) necking Z.30%.
Factors contributing to the isotropic mechanical properties
of steel are homogenous microstructure without micro-
cracks, high cleanliness, low levels of residual elements, low
levels of non-metallic inclusions (NMI), primary carbides
without segregations, and with no carbides precipitated on
the grain boundaries. This properties can be achieved
following the appropriate process route of continuous cast
spring steel through the Clean Steel Concept1 using
continuous soft reduction (CSR)2 process.
The property that is usually used for checking the
quality of the heat treatment carried out on the steel is
hardness. Rockwell C or Brinell hardness is a property
of initial microstructure of the spring steel if are no large
carbides or carbide clusters at the indentation site. In the
hardened state, hardness may be an indication of the
austenitising temperature, from which the spring steel
has been quenched. In the tempered state, hardness is

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92 International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering 2013 VOL 7 NO 2 DOI 10.1179/1749514812Z.00000000040
 Šolić et al.
important for users, although based on hardness, is not
possible to distinguish between the springs, which were
quenched and tempered in various ways because the
same hardness can be achieved by varying the austeni-
tising and tempering temperature. For this purpose an
additional criterion is introduced into the tempering
diagram and it is toughness.
Properties that are used to describe the spring steels
resistance to cracking due to the overload are ductility
and toughness. For the determination of ductility and
toughness there is no generally accepted test method so
the documentation provides various results obtained by
different test methods that are not mutually comparable.
With the tensile test on standard tensile test specimens
with no precracks the tensile strength, yield strength,
elongation and necking are measured and the ductility is
estimated on that basis. Ductility is the ability of the
material to resist the crack initiation and spread of
fracture during gross plastic deformation. For materials
with relatively low ductility, which are also spring steels,
the tensile test is highly variable, which is a consequence
of non-homogeneity of the material and the accuracy of
the test method itself. For this reason more test samples
are used and the information about materials tensile
strength is based on statistical analysis. Ductility can
also be estimated from the absorbed energy by a Charpy
V notch test specimen.
For the estimation of spring steel toughness the
impact toughness is most commonly used which is
measured on pre-notched Charpy V standard specimens
and it is known as the Charpy-V notch (CVN) impact
test. The toughness of a material, which is described as
the ability of the material to resist the propagation of
existing crack on tensile stress, is called fracture
toughness KIC, and is determined on circumferentially
notched and fatigue (precracked tensile) test specimen
(KIc test specimen). Fracture toughness is very impor-
tant property in the case of sharp irregularities and/or
fractures that are defined in alloys as the stress where
the propagation of crack begins on the atomic level.
Toughness defined in this way is one of the fundamental
properties of steel.3,4
In the technical documentation the values of impact
toughness CVN are presented as the toughness of the
spring steel, although the energy of the fracture due to the
impact is not directly related to the spring construction.
The interesting thing is that the spring manufacturers, in
greater measure, do not demand the values of fracture
toughness although for the spring construction the values
of fracture toughness are of greater importance than the
impact toughness.
This paper presents the results of the investigation of
the influence of heat treatment parameters on mechanical
properties of high strength spring steel, grade 51CrV4,
manufactured by the steel company Štore-Steel Ltd. The
aim of this investigation was to show the dependence of
mechanical properties of selected spring steel on heat
treatment parameters and the difference between the
values obtained by modelling for the specific chemical
Table 1 Chemical composition of tested 51CrV4 steel (Štore Steel)
Steel grade %C %Si %Mn %P %S %Cr %Mo
51CrV4 0.52 0.33 0.93 0.01 0.005 0.93 0.04
International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering
Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel
1 Circumferentially notched and fatigue precracked KIc
test specimen, dimensions in mm
composition of steel and the results obtained on test
specimens treated with different parameters according to
the model. Also the aim of investigation was to determine
whether or not the measured properties will obtain the
values that are expected of the high strength spring steels
which are, mainly the tensile strength Rm, between 1500
and 1800 MPa, with high impact and fracture toughness.
Experimental
Samples from continuous cast, high strength, spring
steel grade 51CrV4, delivered as hot rolled and soft
annealed bars of dimensions 10062566000 mm were
used in this study. The chemical composition of the steel
is shown in Table 1.
The specimens for the standard tensile test, Charpy V
notch impact test and KIc test specimens in form of
circumferentially notched and fatigue precracked tensile
test specimens in the rolling direction with the fatigue
crack at the notch root in the transverse direction were
cut from soft annealed bar. Also cut were the specimens
for hardness measurement and microstructure charac-
terisation. The aim of the investigation was to obtain the
tempering diagrams for combinations of properties, i.e.
fracture toughness – hardness – tempering temperature,
impact toughness – hardness – tempering temperature,
tensile strength – hardness – tempering temperature.
Hardness and fracture toughness
For the fracture toughness measurement a circumferen-
tially notched and fatigue precracked tensile test speci-
mens with the dimensions indicated in Fig. 1 were used.
On individual groups of KIc test specimens the
Rockwell-C hardness (HRC) was measured using a
Wilson 4JR hardness machine. For the linear elastic
behaviour up to fracture of such specimens4 the following
equation is applied
 
P D
KIc ~ 3=2 {1:27z1:72 (1)
D d
where P is the load at failure, D is the outside diameter,
and d is the notched section diameter of the test specimen.
%V %Ni %Ti %Sn %Ca %N
0.16 0.14 0.015 0.012 0.0004 0.013
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Šolić et al. Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel
2 TTT diagram of spring steel grade 51CrV4 with marked cooling curve from austenitising temperature of 870uC mod-
elled in Hardenability software
Equation (1) is valid as long as the condition 0?5,
d/D,0?8 is fulfilled.5
Measurements of fracture toughness were performed
using an Instron 1255 tensile test machine. The cross-
head speed of 1?0 mm min21 was used for standard
tensile tests on specimens with a nominal test length of
100 mm. In the tests two specially prepared cardan fixed
jaws, ensuring the axiality of the tensile load, were used.
During the tests the tensile–load/displacement relation-
ship until failure was recorded. In all cases this
relationship was linear, and the validity of equation (1)
for the tests was confirmed.
Impact toughness
The impact toughness was measured by Charpy impact
test known also as Charpy V-notch test (ISO 148).
Measurement with an instrumented Charpy hammer
allows the estimation of the total impact energy, the
energy needed for crack initiation and the energy
necessary for crack propagation. Hardness HRC was
measured on an Instron B 2000 device according to
standard SIST EN ISO 6508-1.
Tensile test
The standard tensile test (SIST EN ISO 6892-1) was
applied to measure tensile strength Rm (MPa), yield stress
Rp0?2 (MPa), Elongation A5 (%) and Necking Z (%).
Heat treatment of samples
For the selected austenitising temperature of 870uC, first,
the modelling of TTT diagrams and tempering diagrams
were done using Hardenability software. The test speci-
mens were heat treated in a horizontal vacuum furnace
with uniform high pressure gas quenching using nitrogen
(N2) at pressure of 5 bar. After first preheat (650uC) the
specimens were heated at the rate of 10uC min21 to
austenitising temperature of 870uC, soaked for 10 min, gas
quenched to 80uC, and then single tempered for one hour
at different temperatures between 300 and 700uC. At each
tempering temperature 16 test specimens for tensile test
(Rm specimen), for determination of fracture toughness
94 International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering
(KIc specimen) as well as two metallographic samples W
1969 mm were heat treated. The Charpy-V toughness
CVN specimens were tempered between 200 and 625uC.
Results and discussion
For the presented chemical composition of 51CrV4
spring steel modelling using Hardenability software was
carried out. TTT diagrams with cooling curves for cool-
ing in nitrogen at pressure of 5 bar, transformation
temperatures and tempering diagrams were modelled.
Figures 2–4 shows TTT diagram with the selected cooling
curve, transformation temperature diagram and temper-
ing diagram for the steel 51CrV4 with chemical composi-
tion presented at Table 1 from the selected austenitising
temperature of 870uC.
Figure 5 shows tempering diagram mechanical prop-
erties (tensile strength Rm (MPa), yield strength Rp0?2
(MPa), elongation A (%) and necking Z (%), tempering
temperature modelled using Hardenability software for
vacuum heat treatment of the specified spring steel.
Tempering diagram of mechanical properties
Rm, Rp0?2, A and Z as function of tempering
temperature
Figure 6 shows a classic tempering diagram of the average
measured values of mechanical properties [tensile strength
Rm (MPa), yield strength Rp0?2 (MPa), elongation A5 (%),
necking Z (%)] as a function of tempering temperature in
range between 300 and 700uC for an austenitising
temperature of 870uC.
For each tempering temperature tensile tests were
performed on a statistically relevant number of Rm
specimens so the results were subjected to statistical
analysis. As can be seen from the diagram, the minimum
variation of results is within ¡2s in the whole range of
selected tempering temperatures for tensile strength and
elongation, while it is higher only for necking. In
comparison with modelled tempering diagram the mean
value of tensile strength Rm for the tempering tempera-
ture of 500uC is smaller by 219 MPa, and yield strength
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 Šolić et al. Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel

3 Transformation temperature for spring steel grade 51CrV4 modelled in Hardenability software

4 Tempering diagram (hardness–tempering temperature) for spring steel grade 51CrV4 modelled in Hardenability
software

Rp0?2 by 144 MPa. For the tempering temperature of
650uC measured mean value of tensile strength Rm is
higher by 28 MPa, and Rp0?2 is higher by 112 MPa.
The measured contraction is higher by 16% and necking
by 11?2% comparing to values given by Hardenability
model. Comparing the results with the modelled values, for
a tempering temperature of 500uC, the measured value of
tensile strength, Rm, was 1402 MPa, and in the model, the
specified Rm value was given at a tempering temperature of
547uC.

5 Tempering diagram for spring steel 51CrV4 modelled in Hardenability software

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Šolić et al. Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel

6 Classic tempering diagram for continuous cast hot rolled flat spring steel 51CrV4, austenitising temperature 870uC

Tempering diagram hardness HRC – fracture
toughness, KIC – tempering temperature
High strength spring steels are very notch sensitive, so it
is very important to measure fracture toughness KIc,
which can be described as the ability of the material to
resist the propagation of existing crack under tensile
stress. Fracture toughness KIc was determined in this
study by use of circumferentially notched and fatigue
precracked KIc: test specimen which were linear elastic
loaded to fracture. Tempering diagram hardness HRC –
fracture toughness KIc – tempering temperature for the
selected austenitising temperature 870uC and selected
tempering temperature in the range of 200–625uC for the
steel grade 51CrV4 is shown in Fig. 7.
From the diagram in Fig. 7 it can be seen that the
fracture toughness was also measured on the quenched
specimens along with the specimens that were quenched
and tempered at various temperatures. It can be seen
that the minimum variation of results within ¡2s is in
the quenched state and in KIc specimens, which were
quenched and tempered at 200uC. At higher temper-
ing temperatures between 300 and 525uC, the results
scattering is slightly higher. This can be attributed to the
kinetics of precipitation during tempering which affected
the heterogeneity of the investigated steel. In the range
between 500 and 575uC there was no increase in fracture
toughness from which one could conclude that we are in
the area of irreversible temper brittleness which should
be further investigated.6
Tempering diagram hardness HRC – Charpy-V –
tempering temperature
To generate this diagram the impact toughness was
measured by Charpy impact test known also as Charpy
V-notch test (ISO 148). Measurement with an instrumen-
ted Charpy hammer allows the estimation of the total
impact energy, the energy needed for crack initiation and
the energy necessary for crack propagation. The tempering

7 Effect of tempering temperature on hardness HRC and fracture toughness KIc of spring steel 51CrV4

96 International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering 2013 VOL 7 NO 2

 Šolić et al.
8 Effect of tempering temperature on hardness HRC and impact toughness Charpy-V of continuous cast hot rolled flat
spring steel 51CrV4
diagram obtained for selected tempering temperatures in
the range of 200–625uC for high strength steel 51CrV4 is
shown in Fig. 8.
The diagram shows that the curves of hardness and
impact toughness Charpy-V over the entire range of
tempering temperature are similar to the curves of
hardness and fracture toughness KIc in the tempering
diagram shown in Fig. 7. Similarly, for fracture tough-
ness the impact toughness also increases to a tempera-
ture of 525uC. In the range from 500 to 550uC the impact
toughness is approximately equal, then it increases
again. This trend can be attributed to the kinetics of
precipitation during tempering. In the diagram, the
variation of results within ¡2s in the quenched and
tempered condition by a temperature of 475uC is of the
a, b in transverse direction; c, d in longitudinal direction
9 Typical microstructure of KIc test specimens
International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering
Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel
same magnitude, after that it is increased for tempering
temperature above 500uC. In the tempering temperature
range of 525–575uC results show that toughness is
reduced, which confirms the observations made in
measuring the fracture toughness, when the assumption
that this is the area of irreversible temper embrittlement
was made.7,8
Microstructure analysis
Microstructure was analysed with a Microphot FXA
(Nikon) light microscope with the 3CCD camera Hitachi
HV-C20AMP. Figure 9 shows that in as quenched
condition, the microstructure consists of untempered
martensite and lower bainite, strong positive (bright) and
negative (dark) segregations are visible due to the lower
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Šolić et al. Influence of heat treatment on mechanical properties of 51CrV4 spring steel
etching intensity of untempered martensite. In the
microstructure, non-metallic inclusions of the sulphide
type can also be observed, that are located in positive
segregations and oriented in rolling direction.
Conclusions
On the basis of the experimental investigation conducted
it can be concluded that the high strength spring steel
51CrV4 can successfully be heat treated in a horizontal
vacuum furnace with uniform high pressure gas quench-
ing using nitrogen (N2) at a pressure of 5 bar. Achieved
hardness after quenching was 58?4¡0?8 HRC which is
enough for this steel to obtain the required hardness of
30–50 HRC after single tempering.
The microstructure of heat treated specimens consists
of tempered martensite and bainite (y20 vol.-%) that
meets the requirements of TB1402 (Scania Standard
STD512090 and STD4153) standard for leaf springs that
allows 80% of martensite in the middle of the spring.
The investigation also showed that standardised frac-
ture toughness testing (ASTM E399-90), could be replaced
with a non-standard testing method using circumferentially
notched and fatigue precracked tensile specimens (KIc test
specimen). The results of this innovative approach of
investigation have shown that using the proposed method it
was possible to draw, for the normally used range of work-
ing hardness, combined tempering diagrams (Rockwell-C
hardness – fracture toughness, KIc – tempering temperature)
98 International Heat Treatment and Surface Engineering
for vacuum heat treated high strength spring steel grade
51CrV4.
According to tempering diagrams tensile strength Rm –
yield stress Rp0?2 – elongation A5 (%) – necking Z (%) –
tempering temperature and tempering diagram hardness
HRC – impact toughness Charpy-V – tempering tem-
perature the authors can conclude that the investigated
spring steel 51CrV4 is suitable for production of high
strength springs when proper heat treatment is performed.
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