Impact Toughness Modification of NIST Low-Energy Charpy Verification Specimens for Testing at Room Temperature

The possibility for the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to certify Charpy reference specimens for testing at room temperature (21 °C ± 1 °C) instead of −40 °C was investigated in a previous study, in which a slightly increased likelihood of specimen jamming was observed at the low-energy level (13 J to 20 J). Moreover, there is a concern that the higher impact toughness of low-energy verification specimens at room temperature would not allow the same Charpy machine features to be verified as in the case of low-temperature (−40 °C) tests, namely, the linear elastic behavior of the sample and the very high maximum forces (typically larger than 33 kN). In this paper, we report on the change in the mechanical properties (hardness and absorbed energy) of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) 4340 steel low-energy specimens that ensues from the modification of the temperature of the final tempering heat treatment. We established that, if low-energy verification specimens are tempered at 300 °C for 2 h and then air cooled, they exhibit equivalent impact toughness (13 J to 20 J) and postimpact behavior (specimen halves projected backward at high speed) at room temperature as compared to specimens currently on sale for testing at −40 °C. Their hardness is however increased to above 49 HRC on the Rockwell scale. The minimum hardness requirement for low-energy verification specimens, currently set at 44 HRC in NIST specifications, will have to be increased to 49 HRC.