The two-step austempering process has been reported to be an effective method to accelerate the bainitic transformation process by introducing martensite (Q-M-B). However, in this study, it was found that the Q-M-B process reduced the incubation time, but the transformation duration remained nearly unchanged. The notably reduced activation energy barrier for nucleation of bainitic ferrite on the preformed martensite should be responsible for the reduced duration time of the Q-M-B process. A process that both of the two steps were above, Ms (Q-B-B), has been demonstrated to increase transformation rate and improve the amount of bainitic ferrite, which probably results from the additional hysteresis free energy provided by the first quenching process.
Keywords: bearing steel; nanostructured bainite; phase transformation; two-step austempering process.