Based on the phase transition points of a new designed 4140 steel determined using a dilatometer,the Gleeble-3800 thermal simulator was used to conduct different spheroidizing annealing simulations,including subcritical spheroidizing annealing,step cooling spheroidizing annealing,and isothermal spheroidizing annealing.The results show that during subcritical spheroidizing annealing,even after a long holding time,the original martensitic region is spheroidized,while the original bainitic region just begins to spheroidize.In the step cooling spheroidizing annealing test,the spheroidization rate is increased to 75%,and as the heating temperature increases,the amount of lamellar cementite also increases.For the isothermal spheroidizing annealing process,heating at 760 ℃ followed by isothermal holding at 720 ℃ results in a spheroidization rate of 82%,with hardness meeting the user's requirement of ≤185 HBW.However,localized carbide aggregation is observed.Therefore,based on Thermo-Calc calculations of the isothermal transformation curve for the 4140 steel,a preheating stage at 700 ℃ is added before the isothermal spheroidizing annealing.With the optimized preheating+isothermal spheroidizing annealing process,the continuous heat treatment furnace in the production line successfully produces 4140 round steel that meets the design specifications,achieving spheroidization rate of ≥90%,Brinell hardness of ≤175 HBW,with uniformly distributed microstructure.