High-alloy or hypereutectoid steels, especially anti-friction bearing steels such as 100Cr6, form grain boundary carbides and pearlitic microstructural components when cooled from high temperatures (1100 to 1250.degree. C.). These formations impede mechanical workability and hardenability as well as chipless deformation. A spheroidal cementite microstructure suitable for further processing can be achieved only after long annealing processes (spheroidal cementite annealing) of 16 hours or more. Much thought has been given to the question of how to shorten the duration of this soft annealing or whether the annealing can be replace altogether.
F. Mladen and E. Hornbogen studied the influence of thermomechanical processing on the mechanical properties of 100Cr6 steel (Archiv Eisenhuettenwesen 49 (1978) No. 2, pp. 449 to 453). Austenitizing was carried out above the temperature at which Fe.sub.3 C completely dissolves which, given a 0.99 C w/o, is somewhat less than 1100.degree. C. Hot rolling began at 1100.degree. C. with simultaneous cooling to 720.degree. C. Cooling from 720.degree. C. to ambient temperature was accomplished by water quenching. The details of the deformation sequence are not discussed in the article. The thermomechanically treated microstructure displayed such a finely dispersed distribution of carbides that the resolution limits of the optical microscope were reached. The reason for this improved distribution was the increase in dislocation density and the subgrain boundaries created by dislocations, which resulted in new nucleation sites for the carbides.
A process for producing cylindrical rolled bodies from steel 0.7 to 1.2 with a carbon w/o is known from DE PS 2361330. In this process, steel wire that has been hot-rolled at 1000.degree. C. is rapidly cooled to a temperature that corresponds to its lower pearlite range. The steel wire is then isothermally transformed and brought to a hardness of 50 HRC by cold drawing without intermediate annealing. The rapid cooling of the wire and its subsequent isothermal transformation results in a microstructure of fine-lamellar pearlite. This enables the wire to be drawn, after being descaled and phosphatized, without any intervening annealing.