Low-Carbon Steels 1012 and 1015

General characteristics of Low-Carbon Steels 1012 and 1015

These are general purpose low-carbon steels that may be case-hardened by carburizing and other methods, and may be easily machined and welded.

Applications

These steels are used for forged motor shafts, hydraulic shafts and pump shafts, as well as
machinery parts. They would be used for such applications in a surface-hardened condition.

Forging

These grades would be forged from a start temperature in the order of 2300ºF (1260ºC) down to a temperature around 1650ºF (900ºC.) Forging temperatures used will be in many instances based on past experience, and will always take into account the amount of reduction and the complexity of the part being forged.

Heat treatment

Steels at this level of carbon content, in fact steels with 0.05 up to around 0.25 percent carbon, are used in the as-forged condition. Such forgings show good machinability and little is gained in the way of strength by heat treatment. It is often noted that as-forged strength and machinability at this carbon level are slightly better than are obtained from the normalized condition. 

Normalizing may be carried out prior to case hardening, at around 1700ºF (925ºC) or in the event of variations in microstructure resulting from forging of a complex shape.

Other heat treatment for these steels will involve carburizing or other surface hardening treatments, followed by hardening from a temperature in the region of 1400-1450ºF (760 -790ºC.) Large parts of simple shape will be water quenched, all others oil quenched.

Tempering

A tempering treatment at 340-410ºF (170-210ºC,) which more or less amounts to a stress relief, may be carried out following hardening. Any further temperatures, to achieve required properties, will be based upon experience.

Machinability

Good machinability is obtained on these grades in the as-forged or normalized conditions, as described above.

Weldability

Welding of these grades may be carried out by all normal fusion methods, preferably using low-carbon electrodes.

AISI 1015 is a low-carbon steel that offers superior workability and machinability. A versatile engineering and machinery alloy, AISI 1015 is used normalized, hot-rolled, cold-worked or annealed.

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