Sulfide Transformation with Tellurium Treatment for Y15 Free-Cutting Steel

To investigate the effect of tellurium on the morphology of sulfide, various amounts of tellurium powders were added to the Y15 free-cutting commercial steel melt and then the melt was cooled in different cooling modes. The composition and morphology of sulfide and telluride in steel were analyzed to investigate the mechanism of MnS transformation combined with in situ observation. The results showed that the precipitation of chain-like MnS inclusions was significantly inhibited due to the addition of tellurium, and these MnS inclusions were transformed into complex inclusions with lower aspect ratios, which were composed of MnS and MnTe. In air-cooling mode, the MnS inclusions were effectively spheroidized when the w([Te])/w([S]) in steel was 0.2, whereas tellurium had almost no effect on the morphology of sulfide in furnace-cooling mode. The mechanism of sulfide spheroidization is discussed. The mechanism was verified by in situ observation experiment through high-temperature laser confocal microscopy.