Heat treatment Processes

Heat treatment of sttel

Hardnening
Normalizing
Annealing
Tempering

three basic processs in heat treatment are

hardening annealing and normalizing tempering
is done to reduce the increase in hardness and
to improve the toughness induced due to
hardening

Hardening
Steel hardening can be be done by heating
above lower critical temperature and quenching
in a suitable liquid
In this process hardness is increased but
toughness is greatly reduced
Fully hardened steel is not tough.but differnet
hardness levles are required for different uses
as an example ball bearing requires hardness
and little and toughness spring required to be
more tough

Tempering
Tempering is the process that will increased the
toughness while the hardness that is tested by charpy
impact reducing toughness testing machine
To improve the toughness hardened steel is tempered
For tempering steel components are heated below the
lower critical temperature which they are begin to harden
and allowed to cool in air or other suitable medium
amount of tempering is controlled by controlling the
temperature at which heating is done and cooling in a
suitable medium Air water oil

 Fully hardened steel has typical martnesitic

structure of plain carbon steel and toughness is
very low By Tempering of the 343 C heating to
the temperature indicates considerable increase
in toughness rec carbo Bide precipitate
482 C reduces the precipitation of Carbide from
martensite
definite coalescence of the carbide particles has
taken place

 for steels susceptible to temper brittleness.

Temper colours formed on a cleaned surface are
still used occasionally as a guide to temperature.
They exist due to the interference effects of thin
films of oxide formed during tempering, and they
act similarly to oil films on water. Alloys such as
stainless steel form thinner films than do carbon
steels for a given temperature and hence
produce a colour lower in the series. For
example, pale straw corresponds to 300C,
instead of 230C (Table 1).

Temper Colour

Temperature C

Objects

Pale straw

230

Planing and slotting

tools

Dark straw

240

Milling cutters, drills

Brown

250

Taps, shear blades for

metals

Brownish-purple

260

Punches, cups,
snaps, twist drills,
reamers

Purple

270

Press tools, axes

Dark purple

280

Cold chisels, setts for

steel

Blue

300

Saws for wood,

springs

Blue

450-650

Toughening for
constructional steels

Annealing
is a stress reliving process
Two principal functions induced by
annealing is it softnens steel and improve
ductility.
also requires heating the steel in a furnace
and cooling.

 Annealing is carried out by heating the steel 75

degress above upper critical temperature and
keep at the temperature for one hour and heat is
shut off and allowed to cool in the furnace slowly
when it is removed from the furance all stress
are finally relived. under the influence of high
annealing temperature stress are relived and
during slow cooling process stresses are not
raised again. Thus when finaly removed they
retain more softeness and ductility

Full annealingistheprocessofslowlyraisingthe
temperatureabout50C(90F)abovetheAustenitic
temperaturelineA3orlineACMinthecaseofHypoeutectoi
steels(steelswith<0.77%Carbon)and50C(90F)int
theAustenite-Cementiteregioninthecaseof
Hypereutectoidsteels(steelswith>0.77%Carbon).
Itisheldatthistemperatureforsufficienttimeforallthe
materialtotransformintoAusteniteorAustenite-Cementit
asthecasemaybe.Itisthenslowlycooledattherateof
about20C/hrinafurnacetoabout50C)intotheFerrit
Cementiterange.Atthispoint,itcanbecooledinroom
temperatureairwithnaturalconvection.
ThegrainstructurehascoarsePearlitewithferriteor
Cementite(dependingonwhetherhypoorhypereutectoid
Thesteelbecomessoftandductile.

Normalizing
improve the mechanical properties
removes undesirable coarse grain
structure that may have occurred during
mechanical working process of forging or
rolling or mechanical working
similar coarse grain structure occur in
castings while solidifying

 normalizing produces more close grain structure

better adopted to subsequent heat treatment .
some times normalizing along sufficient to obtain
the required mechanical properties to steel and
no further treatment required
Normalizing is done by heating the items to be
normalized 65 C above upper critical temperature
and controlled cooling in Air after heating and
slow cooling in the air reduces the size of the
grain size and removes the grain variation in the
structure

difference between
full annealing and normalizing
is that fully annealed
parts are uniform in
softness (and
machinablilty)
throughout the entire
part; since the entire
part is exposed to the
controlled furnace
cooling

. In the case of the

normalized part, depending
on the part geometry, the
cooling is non-uniform
resulting in non-uniform
material properties across
the part. This may not be
desirable if further
machining is desired, since
it makes the machining job
somewhat unpredictable

Process Annealing
used to treat work-hardened parts made out of lowCarbon steels (< 0.25% Carbon). allows the parts to be
soft enough for further cold working without fracturing.
Process annealing is done by raising the temperature to
just below line A1on the diagram. This temperature is
about 727 C so heating to 700 C should suffice. This is
held long enough to allow recrystallization of the ferrite
phase, and then cooled in still air. Since the material stays
in the same phase through out the process, the only
change that occurs is the size, shape and distribution of
the grain structure. This process is cheaper than either full
annealing or normalizing since the material is not heated
to a very high temperature or cooled in a furnace.

Stress Relief Annealing

is used to reduce residual stresses in
large castings, welded parts and coldformed parts. Such parts tend to have
stresses due to thermal cycling or work
hardening. Parts are heated to
temperatures of up to 600 - 650 C and
held for an extended time (about 1 hour or
more) and then slowly cooled in still air

Spheroidization
is an annealing process used for high
carbon steels (Carbon > 0.6%) that will be
machined or cold formed subsequently.
This is done by one of the following ways:
1.Heat the part to a temperature just
below the Ferrite-Austenite line, line A1 or
below the Austenite-Cementite line,
essentially below the 727 C line. Hold the
temperature for a prolonged time and
follow by fairly slow cooling

Spheroidization

contd

2.Cycle multiple times between

temperatures slightly above and slightly
below the 727 C line, say for example
between 700 and 750 C and slow cool.
.

3.For tool and alloy steels heat to 750 to

800 C and hold for several hours followed
by slow cooling.

Case hardening or surface

hardening
Case hardening or surface hardening is the
process of hardening the surface of a metal,
often a low carbon steel, by infusing elements
into the material's surface, forming a thin layer of
a harder alloy. Case hardening is usually done
after the part in question has been formed into
its final shape, but can also be done to increase
the hardening element content of bars to be
used in a pattern welding or similar process.

Carburizing

Carburizing is a process used to case harden steel with a carbon content

between 0.1 and 0.3 wt% C. In this process steel is introduced to a carbon
rich environment and elevated temperatures for a certain amount of time,
and then quenched so that the carbon is locked in the structure; one of the
simpler procedures is repeatedly to heat a part with an acetylene torch set
with a fuel-rich flame and quench it in a carbon-rich fluid such as oil.
Carburization is a diffusion-controlled process, so the longer the steel is held
in the carbon-rich environment the greater the carbon penetration will be
and the higher the carbon content. The carburized section will have a
carbon content high enough that it can be hardened again through flame or
induction hardening.
It's possible to carburize only a portion of a part,
The carbon can come from a solid, liquid or gaseous source; pack
carburizing. Packing low carbon steel parts with a carbonaceous material
and heating for some time diffuses carbon into the outer layers.
gas carburizing involves placing the parts in a furnace maintained with a
methane-rich interior.

Nitriding
Nitriding heats the steel part to 482621 C in an
atmosphere of ammonia gas and dissociated ammonia.
The time the part spends in this environment dictates the
depth of the case. The hardness is achieved by the
formation of nitrides. Nitride forming elements must be
present for this method to work; these elements
include chromium, molybdenum, andaluminium. The
advantage of this process is it causes little distortion, so
the part can be case hardened after being quenched,
tempered and machined.
[

Cyaniding
Cyaniding is a case hardening process that is fast and
efficient; it is mainly used on low carbon steels. The part
is heated to 875-900 C in a bath of sodium cyanide and
then is quenched and rinsed, in water or oil, to remove
any residual cyanide.
This process produces a thin, hard shell (between 0.010
and 0.030 inches) that is harder than the one produced
by carburizing, and can be completed in 20 to 30
minutes compared to several hours so the parts have
less opportunity to become distorted. It is typically used
on small parts such as bolts, nuts, screws and small
gears. The major drawback of cyaniding is that cyanide
salts are poisonous.

Carbonitriding
Carbonitriding is similar to cyaniding
except a gaseous atmosphere of
ammonia and hydrocarbons is used
instead of sodium cyanide. If the part is to
be quenched then the part is heated to
775885 C; if not then the part is heated
to 650790 C.