Met. Mater. Int., Vol. 22, No. 5 (2016), pp.

836~841
doi: 10.1007/s12540-016-5657-x

Surface Decarburization Behavior and Its Adverse Effects of Air-Cooled

Forging Steel C70S6 for Fracture Splitting Connecting Rod

Zhang Chao-lei1,*, Xie li-yao1, Liu Guang-lei2, Chen lie2, Liu Ya-zheng1, and Li Jian3

1
School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing,
Beijing 100083, China
2
Xining Special Steel Co. Ltd., Xining 810005, China
3
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qinghai University, Xining 810016, China
(received date: 1 December 2015 / accepted date: 16 April 2016)

Abstract: Surface decarburization behavior and its adverse effects of air-cooled forging steel C70S6 for auto-
mobile engine fracture splitting connecting rod were investigated comprehensively by mechanical proper-
ties, microstructure and fracture morphology analysis. The results show that the surface decarburization in
the outer surface of the fracture splitting at the big end bore and the micro-cracks in the decarburized layer
are result in the uneven and spalling fracture surfaces of the waster connecting rod product. Besides, par-
tial decarburization is produced between 900 °C and 1250 °C for heating 2 h, and decarburization sensitivity
reach maximum at 1150 °C, but no complete decarburization forms for heating 2 h at 650-1250 °C. The
decarburized depth follows a parabolic law with the increase of the heating time from 0.5 h to 12 h, and the
decarburization sensitivity coefficient is 2.05×10-5 m·s-1/2 at 1200 °C. For the connecting rod manufacturing, sur-
face decarburization must be under effective control during the hot forging process but not the control cooling
process.
Keywords: metals, forging, surface, fracture, microstructure

1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, manufacturing cost reducing, energy saving
and emission reduction are the driving forces for the dramat-
ically increasing usage of air-cooled forging steel in automo-
bile manufacturing. Now air-cooled forging steel is only widely
used for crankshaft and connecting rod in automobile manu-
facturing, but can't meet the requirements for other auto parts,
such as front axle and steering knuckles, because of its limited
and unstable toughness, and/or no significant cost advantage
[1].
As an innovative processing technique, fracture splitting
technology [2] of connecting rod appeared in the 1990s.
Besides notches for fracture splitting [3] and fracture split-
ting conditions [4], material of connecting rod [5-7] is one of
the key influence factors of fracture splitting process. Air-
cooled forging steel C70S6 have developed successfully and
been used in the mass production of fracture splitting con-
necting rod [7-8]. However, there are many difficulties and
challenges for widespread use of the steel, one of which is
high surface decarburization sensitivity because of high car-
*Corresponding author: zhangchaolei@ustb.edu.cn
KIM and Springer
bon content. Work by Yu et al. [9] on the fatigue failure anal-
ysis of a connecting rod made of 40Cr steel has reported that
the presence of a thick decarburization layer on the external sur-
face of the rod body is responsible for the failure. There are
few studies concerning with the effect of the surface decar-
burization on the fracture splitting performance for the con-
necting rod, especially for the steel C70S6 connecting rod.
In this study, surface decarburization behavior and its
adverse effects of the air-cooled forging steel C70S6 for frac-
ture splitting connecting rod was investigated. And then a
control strategy in hot rolling and hot forging processes was
put forward to protect against decarburization. It is believed
that data thus obtained would to promote the application of
air-cooled forging steel and fracture splitting technology in
automobile manufacturing.
2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
Firstly, to reveal the adverse effects of surface decarburiza-
tion, a waster connecting rod product because of the uneven
and spalling fracture surfaces as shown in Fig. 1 was ana-
lyzed by microstructure, fracture morphology and mechani-
cal properties. The connecting rod is produced in Tongxin
Precision Forging Co., Ltd. in China, the manufacturing pro-
Surface Decarburization Behavior and Its Adverse Effects of Air-Cooled Forging Steel C70S6 for Fracture Splitting Connecting Rod 837
Fig. 1. Photos of the waster connecting rod product and the tensile
specimen.
cess of which is as follow: material preparation → induction
reheating  cross wedge rolling  forging  trimming and
punching  hot-bend correction  control cooling  shot
blasting  flaw detection  machining  fracture splitting
 finish machining. Microstructure was observed by Zeiss
Axio Scope. A1 optical microscope. Fracture morphology
was analyzed by a Zeiss EVO 18 scanning electron microscope
(SEM). Mechanical properties at room temperature were
determined by tensile tests according to the National Standard
of China GB/T 228.1-2010. Tensile specimens were machined
from main rod beam of the connecting rod, the gage section
size of which is Φ4 mm × 20 mm, as shown in Fig. 1.
Secondly, different thermal cycles were carried out to
investigate the effects of heating temperature and holding time
on the surface decarburization behavior of the steel C70S6.
The tested steel was obtained from a commercial hot-rolled
bar of 36 mm in diameter. The alloy composition (wt%) is
0.70C-0.20Si-0.59Mn-0.04Ni-0.11Cr-0.07Cu-0.048S-0.030V-
0.014Al-0.012P. Experiment I: Heat treatments were per-
formed from 650 °C to 1250 °C with the intervals of 50 °C
for 2 h to study the effect of heating temperature on the structure
and depth of decarburized layer. Then the more heat treat-
ments were performed at 1125 °C and 1175 °C respectively
for 2 h to further study at which temperature the decarburized
depth reach a maximum value. Experiment II: The effect of
holding time on surface decarburization was studied over the
time of 0.5, 1, 4, 8, 10, and 12 h respectively at a constant
temperature 1200 °C, which is the widely used soaking tem-
perature during billet reheating process in walking beam type
reheating furnace. It is important to emphasize that all exper-
iments above were performed in normal atmosphere, i.e., in
the air. Both oxidation and decarburization took place simul-
taneously during the entire heating and cooling process.
To prevent rounding of the sections’ edges during polishing,
all the decarburized specimens were mounted in Bakelite,
Table 1. Mechanical properties of the C70S6 fracture splitting connecting rod
Tensile strength Rm Yield strength Rp0.2
(MPa)
Standard 900~1050
The waster connecting rod product 1040
and were polished and etched with 4vol% nital for micro-
structural observation. Measurement of the decarburized depth
was performed by the micrographic method and the hard-
ness method following the national standard of China GB/T
224-2008. Vickers microhardness gradient of the decarburized
layer was measured by a 430-SVD Vickers hardness tester
following the national standard of China GB/T 4340.1-1999.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Adverse effects of surface decarburization on fracture
splitting performance
Mechanical properties of the C70S6 fracture splitting con-
necting rod are given in Table 1. To obtain a good combination
of fracture splitting performance and application performance, the
mechanical properties have a suitable range, which means
exorbitant mechanical properties is not only unnecessary or
even harmful to the performances. It can be seen from Table
1 that the five parameters of the mechanical properties of the
waster connecting rod product meet the standard require-
ments.
The required microstructure of the C70S6 connecting rod
is pearlite with less than 10 vol% proeutectoid ferrite [3].
Optical micrograph of the microstructure at the center of the
fracture splitting at the big end bore is shown in Fig. 2(a).
The microstructure examination revealed the presence of plenty
of pearlite and 0.5-1.0 vol% of equiaxed proeutectoid ferrite
which proceeds in the prior-austenite grain boundaries. The
ferrite content is much less than 10 vol%.
Optical micrographs of the microstructure at the inner sur-
face and the outer surface of the fracture splitting at the big
end bore are shown in Fig. 2(b-d). It can be seen from the
figures that no decarburization is present in the inner surface,
because the inner surface is machined after the hot forging.
However, a 260 μm thick partial decarburized layer, in which
the microstructure is equiaxed ferrite along the prior austen-
ite grain boundaries and pearlite, is present, but on complete
decarburization is present in the outer surface. And the great-
est decarburized depth is found at the a1-4 and b1-4 areas in
Fig. 3. The ferrite content is up to 30 vol% in the decarbu-
rized layer, which is much higher than the upper limit value
10 vol%. Before the hot forming process, material surface of
the connecting rod is turned twice. So the decarburization is
produced during the connecting rod manufacturing process
rather than inherited from hot rolled steel bar.
Furthermore, some micro-cracks were found in the decar-
burized layer, as shown in Fig. 2(c-d). The micro-cracks
Elongation A5 Reduction of area Z Hardness
(MPa) (%) (%) (HB)
≥550 10.0~16.0 20.0~40.0 266~310
650 13.0 33.8 300
838 Zhang Chao-lei et al.

were fracture initiations during the fracture splitting process,

Fig. 2. Optical micrographs showing the microstructure of the waster
connecting rod product: the center (a), the inner surface (b) and the
outer surface (c-d) of the fracture splitting at the big end bore (arrows
point at micro cracks).
and then the fracture splitting surface was not in a plane and
had some fracture steps because the micro-cracks are ran-
dom and not in a plane. It is consistent with an early work by
Kong [10] on a SCM440 cold heading steel, which reported
that the micro-cracks in surface decarburized layer of the
steel caused severe cracking during cold heading process.
SEM macrographs and micrographs of the fracture split-
ting surface are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively. It
can be seen from the figures that the inner circular area is
even at macro level and complete cleavage fracture at micro
level, and the inner edge is burr-free and no spalling. However,
except for the inner circular area, the outer area of the fracture
surface is very uneven, and has many ductile fracture steps.
At the a1-4 and b1-4 areas, there are about 180 μm width ductile
fracture zone, which has a good correlation with the surface
decarburized depth above. And the outer edge has burr and
spalling.
From the mechanical properties, the microstructure and the

Fig. 3. SEM macrographs of the fracture splitting surface: (a1-4, b1-4) the surfaces have the greatest decarburized depth; (a5, b5) fracture is even in
the circular area.

Fig. 4. SEM micrographs of the fracture splitting surface: (a) the area (a5) in Fig. 2; (b) the area (a1) in Fig. 2.
Surface Decarburization Behavior and Its Adverse Effects of Air-Cooled Forging Steel C70S6 for Fracture Splitting Connecting Rod 839

Fig. 5. Optical micrographs decarburized at different temperatures for 2 h: (a) 900 °C, (b)1150 °C, and (c) 1250 °C.

fracture morphology results and analysis above, the major
cause for the waster connecting rod product is the thick sur-
face decarburization in the outer surface of the fracture splitting
at the big end bore, which is produced during the connecting rod
manufacturing process rather than the steel hot-rolling process.
3.2. Effect of heating temperature on the structure and
depth of decarburized layer
The optical micrographs decarburized at different tem-
peratures for 2 h are given in Fig. 5. Decarburization did not
form when the tested steel was heated at 650-850 °C. How-
ever, an apparent decarburization forms when the tested steel
was heated at 900 °C. And with the further increase of tem-
perature to 1250 °C, the decarburized depth increase gradu-
ally and then decrease significantly because oxidation rate is
higher than decarburized rate.
Besides, according to the standards GB/T 224-2008 and
ASTME1077-01 on the surface decarburization of steel, surface
decarburization falls into two basic types, complete decarbu-
rization and partial decarburization. When the tested steel
was heated at 900-1250 °C, all the decarburizations are par-
tial. The microstructure in the decarburized layer is equiaxed
ferrite along the prior austenite grain boundaries and pearlite,
and no clear dividing line is present between the decarburized
layer and bulk. Earlier studies[11-14] reported that complete
decarburization is mainly attributed to the occurrence of γα
phase transformation in the α+γ two phases field. In conse-
quence, heating temperature has an important influence on
decarburized structure generally. Taking spring steel 60Si2MnA
for example, with the increase of heating temperature, the
decarburized types change from no decarburization to complete
decarburization, complete and partial decarburizations, partial
decarburization, and no decarburization [15]. Complete decar-
burization did not form in the tested steel because the chemical
composition of which is nearly eutectoid.
The hardness gradient curve of the decarburized depth at
1150 °C and at the different temperatures 900-1250 °C for
heating 2 h are given in Fig. 6. The curve for partial decarbu-
rization is gently increased with the increase of depth from
the surface as shown in Fig. 6(a). It can be seen from Fig. 6(b)
that the decarburized depth increases sharply from 300 μm
to 1300 μm with the increase of temperature from 900 °C to
1150 °C, and then decreases to 1000 μm with the further increase
of temperature to 1250 °C. The maximum of decarburized
depth is 1300 μm at 1150 °C.

Fig. 6. Hardness gradient curve of the decarburized depth at 1150 °C (a) and decarburized depth at different temperatures for heating 2 h (b).
840 Zhang Chao-lei et al.

Fig. 7. Optical micrographs of the decarburized layers at the different times heated at 1200 °C: (a) 0.5 h, (b) 1 h, (c) 4 h, (d) 8 h, (e) 10 h, and (f) 12 h.

3.3. Effect of holding time on the structure and depth of

decarburized layer
The optical micrographs decarburized for the different heat-
ing times and the relation of decarburized depth to the heat-
ing time at 1200 °C are given in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. It
can be seen from Fig. 7 that the decarburizations at 1200 °C
for heating 0.5-12 h are all partial.
Oxidation and decarburization occur simultaneously in the
surface layer of steel during heating process. Decarburized
layer forms only while decarburized rate is bigger than oxida-
tion rate. Oxidation and decarburization are both controlled
by interfacial chemical reaction at the initial stage, and then
controlled by diffusion while diffusion rate is much smaller
than interfacial chemical reaction rate. Thence, when heating
temperature is constant, mathematical model between actual
decarburized depth and heating time can be established according Fig. 8. Relation between the decarburized depth and the heating time
at 1200 °C.
to Fick's first law, as given in Eq. 1 [11]. In consequence, the
decarburized depth follows a parabolic law with the increase
of the heating time. the total decarburized depth and the heating time can be
established as Eq. 3.
h = k t (1) –5
h = 2.05  10  t (3)
where h is the actual decarburized depth / m, t is the heat-
ing time / s, k is a coefficient / m·s-1/2. The coefficient can As can be seen from Fig. 8, there is a good match between
be calculated by the method of least squares curve fitting, the measured data and the Eq. 3.
as given in Eq. 2.
3.4. Control strategy of the surface decarburization
7 4
 L i=1 i
k = --------------------------- (2)
Surface decarburization is adverse to the fracture splitting
7 2 performance and the application performance of the C70S6
 i = 1 ti  Li  connecting rod. In consequence, surface decarburization must
where Li is the experimentally measured decarburized be under effective control through systematic consideration
depth / m, ti is the heating time / s. According to the decar- based on its forming temperature condition as given in Fig.
burized depth and the heating time, the coefficient k can be 6(b).
estimated by Eq. 2. Then, the functional relation between Firstly, surface decarburization is strictly restricted during
Surface Decarburization Behavior and Its Adverse Effects of Air-Cooled Forging Steel C70S6 for Fracture Splitting Connecting Rod 841
the hot-rolled bar production process. Exceedingly thick sur-
face decarburization can inherit from the hot rolled steel bar
to the connecting rod. In general, decarburized depth is not
greater than 0.8% diameter of the hot-rolled bar or less than
0.20 mm. Effects of the reheating parameters in the walking
beam type furnace, including temperature, time and atmo-
sphere, on surface decarburization need to consider.
Secondly, even more important, for the connecting rod
manufacturing, surface decarburization must be under effec-
tive control during the hot forging process but not the control
cooling process. Because the steel has high decarburization
sensitivity at high temperature range, especially around
1150 °C. In general, hot-rolled bar is induction reheated to
1100-1220 °C before the hot forging. The heating time is too
short and do not have to consider. However, selection of the
temperature is critical for the surface decarburization. On the
premise of guarantee forging requirements, the temperature
should keep away from high decarburization sensitivity tem-
perature around 1150 °C.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions can be drawn from the present
investigation on the surface decarburization behavior and its
adverse effects of the air-cooled forging steel C70S6 for
automobile engine connecting rod.
(1) The mechanical properties and the microstructure meet
the standard requirements. The major cause for the waster
connecting rod product is the thick surface decarburization
in the outer surface of the fracture splitting at the big end bore
and the micro-cracks in the decarburized layer. The surface
decarburization is produced during the connecting rod man-
ufacturing process rather than the steel hot-rolling process.
(2) When heated for 2 h, no decarburization forms at 650-
850 °C, and partial decarburization but no complete decar-
burization forms at 900-1250 °C, the maximum depth of
which is 1300 μm at 1150 °C.
(3) The decarburizations at 1200 °C for heating 0.5-12 h
are all partial and no complete decarburization forms. The
relation of decarburized depth to heating time at 1200 °C
follows a parabolic law. And the decarburization sensitivity
coefficient is 2.05×10-5 m·s-1/2.
(4) Surface decarburization must be under effective control
during the connecting rod manufacturing process besides
strictly restricted during the hot-rolled bar production process.
For the manufacturing process, the surface decarburization
should be controlled during the hot forging process but not the
control cooling process. Because the steel has high decarbu-
rization sensitivity at high temperature range, especially around
1150 °C.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors appreciate the financial support by Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. FRF-TP-
15-004A2).
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