Investigation of Microstructure and Hardness after Normalization Heat Treatment Applied to Hardox-400 Steel

In this study, microstructural transformations before and after heat treatment of Hardox 400 sheet material and effects on material hardness depending on applied heat treatment were investigated. In this context, the commercially available Hardox 400 sheet material was transformed into small samples for use in experimental work. Heat-treated material in the furnace atmosphere for 2 hours at 800 oC was cooled in air. After the general metallographic studies applied to the samples, it was determined that the hardness of the samples decreased with the normalization heat treatment. In terms of specimen microstructure characterization, the transformation of a homogeneous fine grained microstructure as well as a coarse grain and irregular structure of microstructural formation after heat treatment were observed. Especially, the predictable material hardness with fine grained homogenized internal structure could be earnable these steel materials with high hardness and wear resistance under applied the normalization heat treatment.