Further enhancement of surface mechanical properties of carburized 9310 steel by electropulsing-assisted ultrasonic surface rolling process

9310 carburized steel experiences significant wear and spalling problems when operating under high friction and heavy loads, which severely restricts its applications in the aviation industry. Therefore, it holds great significance to further enhance the surface mechanical properties of 9310 carburized steel through suitable surface strengthening technologies. The Electropulsing-Assisted Ultrasonic Surface Rolling Process (EP-USRP) has been successfully applied to carburized 9310 steel, yielding significant improvements in surface quality, hardness, friction and wear properties, and microstructure. Systematic investigations were conducted under varying EP-USRP parameters. Regarding the electric pulse parameters, it is observed that with the increase in output voltage, surface properties such as surface roughness and surface hardness tend to first optimize and then deteriorate. After applying EP-USRP with optimal parameters, the surface roughness of carburized 9310 steel was reduced to Ra 0.154 μm, a mere 5 % of its initial value. The surface hardness experienced a substantial increase, reaching 909.2 HV, representing a notable improvement of 29.9 % compared to the original sample, with a corresponding hardening depth of 1400 μm. Moreover, the wear amount of carburized 9310 steel witnessed a remarkable reduction to 11.8 % of its initial value, accompanied by a decrease in the coefficient of friction to 43.0 %. The enhancement of carburized 9310 steel through EP-USRP is attributed to two key mechanisms: deformation hardening induced by severe plastic deformation and microstructure strengthening resulting from strain-induced martensitic transformation. Among them, the severe plastic deformation mechanism is dominant, Through these mechanisms, the proportion of small-angle boundaries in carburized 9310 steel strengthened by EP-USRP increased. Additionally, the grain size of the surface layer decreased, and the content of retained austenite in the surface layer decreased, collectively contributing to significant improvements in surface properties, as well as friction and wear performance.