Conventional quenching and tempering (CQ-T) process does not always ensure the achievement of desired toughness of the steels with residual element tin. In the present work, a novel intercritical heat treatment (Q-IQ-T) process consisting of quenching (Q), intercritical quenching (IQ) and tempering (T) is adopted. The results show that the microstructure of the Q-IQ-T specimens consists of tempered martensite (M) and ferrite (F), which is finer than the full martensitic microstructure of the CQ-T specimens. 0.03%, 0.06% and 0.09% tin contents reduce the impact energy values of CQ-T specimens by 22.95%, 29.61% and 45.93%, respectively, while those of the Q-IQ-T specimens decrease by 19.25%, 17.32% and 21.32%, respectively. Together with comparison to the CQ-T specimen with 0.09% tin, the impact energy value of Q-IQ-T specimen increases by 85.24%, from 40.86 J to 75.69 J. And the fracture morphology changes from brittle fracture to ductile fracture.
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