Study on high carbon steel wires and inclusion rating by Bekaert method

Abstract

High carbon steel wires are widely used in the fields of automobiles, civil engineering and construction, machines and many other industries. Microstructural development of high carbon steel wires was studied and discussed. Based on the experimental results, the relationships between the strength increase and microstructure development during the cold wire drawing were studied to reveal the strength-ening mechanism, void initiation mechanism and arrangement of pearlitic colonies. From the results obtained, it was concluded that strong plastic deformation, thinning of pearlitic colonies and alignment of lamellaein the drawing direction took place during cold drawing which led to increase the strength the wires. Furthermore, an inclusion rating method known as Bekaert Method was thoroughly stud-ied to rate the received industrial samples. After comparing the Bekaert method and ASTM method of inclusion rating, it was found that the results provided by Bekaert method are much precise as compared to that of ASTM method. Thus the conclusion was made that Bekaert method of inclusion rating is the most accurate and precise method to rate the inclusion.