Effect of microstructure and crystallographic texture on the Charpy impact test for maraging 300 steel

Abstract The effect of different solution annealing temperatures on the hardness, impact toughness and crystallographic orientation of high strength martensitic 300 grade maraging steel was investigated. The results showed that the solution annealing temperature has a significant influence on the impact toughness energy because of the engineering of the crystallographic textures. The impact toughness improved with increasing intensity of the {111}, {112} and {110}//ND (normal direction) fibres up to approximately 1000 °C in solution annealing. The Charpy impact energy reached a maximum without any significant loss in hardness for the discussed conditions. However, solution annealing at 1100 °C developed an undesirable rotated cubic texture component because of the recrystallised cubic component in the austenite grains, which led to a significant reduction in impact toughness energy.