New steel making process through reduction and sintering of cementite poik

A new steel making process through reduction and sintering treatment of cementite powder was proposed, and microstructure of the material obtained by this process was examined by scanning electron microscopy and EBSP analysis. The cementite powder obtained by mechanical alloying was compacted under high pressure up to l000 MPa, and then reduced during sintering in a hydrogen (H₂) gas atmosphere at elevated temperatures. The cementite compacts were completely reduced by the sintering at 1073 K to 1273 K for 18ks. The relative density of sintered material became 95% or more when the temperature was elevated above 1173 K. The SEM observation and EBSP analysis indicated that the obtained steel has equiaxed ferrite-pearlite structure with grain size of around 5 μm and the crystallographic orientations of ferrite grains are randomly distributed.