Spray forming of homogeneous 100Cr6 bearing steel billets

For the manufacture of bearing steels of low distortion potential, 100Cr6 steel billets were spray formed with respect to metallurgical homogeneity. Microstructure and properties of the billets produced under different thermal conditions were studied and evaluated. A heat transfer model of a growing billet was established to investigate the thermal profiles of the billet during spray forming. An apparent correlation between the cooling and solidification condition of the deposit and its metallurgical properties has been disclosed by means of numerical simulation and experiment.