Improvement of hot ductility of C-Mn Steel containing arsenic by rare earth Ce

The effect of different Ce content on the hot ductility of C-Mn steel containing arsenic was investigated at the temperature ranging from 700 to 1100 °C conducting Gleebel-1500 thermal-mechanical simulator. The reduction of area (RA%) was used to evaluate the hot ductility. The 0.16 mass% As widened the ductility trough range and especially, decreased the RA value at 850–950 °C. Conversely, adding Ce in the steel could remedy the arsenic-induced hot ductility deterioration. Moreover, with the increase of Ce content from 0 to 0.035 mass%, the RA value at 800–950 °C significantly increased, compared to that of the arsenic steel. When the content of Ce reached 0.027–0.035 mass%, the RA value at 800–850 °C was even higher than that of steel without As. Besides, the corresponding fracture morphology was changed from intergranular feature to ductile and/or interdendritic feature. Grain refinement by Ce addition, the formation of arsenious rare earth inclusions and grain boundary segregation of Ce were considered to improve the hot ductility of the steel containing As.