Effect of Multiple Reverse Transformation Treatments on Grain Refinement and Mechanical Properties of Biomedical Co–Cr–Mo–N Alloys Fabricated by Electron Beam Melting

We investigated the improvement of mechanical properties of biograde Co–28Cr–6Mo–0.11N alloy prepared by electron beam melting through grain refinement via multiple reverse transformations. While the effects of single and double reverse transformation treatments on the microstructure have been investigated in previous studies, we investigated the effects of multiple reverse transformation heat treatments. The particle size was refined to 1/4, and the yield strength, tensile silence strength, and elongation were enhanced to 655 MPa, 1234 MPa, and 45%, respectively, satisfying ASTM F75 standards. Moreover, a mixed phase of ε and γ was observed to provide higher yield strength than a single γ structure. The dominant behavior in the γ → ε phase transformation at 1073 K was obvious. Grain growth was suppressed by the grain-boundary pinning effect of the Cr(2)N phase during reverse transformation to the γ phase. Because no fracture was caused by precipitates such as σ, η, and Cr(2)N phases, the influence of the precipitates on the tensile properties was small.