ANNEALING

SWARNADIPTA RAKSHIT
D EEPAYAN RO Y
AD I TI PAUL
KUSH KUMAR NO NI A
ANI RUD D HA SHO W
AJ AY KUMAR YAD AV
KO VVURI VI KRAM RE D D Y

D E PA R T M E N T O F M E TA L L U R G I C A L A N D M AT E R I A L S
ENGINEERING
N AT I O N A L I N S T I T U T E O F T E C H N O L O G Y D U R G A P U R
INTRODUCTION

Annealing in general, refers to a heat treatment

process which involves heating the material to a
predetermined temperature, soaking at this
temperature and then cooling it slowly, normally in a
furnace by switching it off.
MAIN AIMS OF ANNEALING
Improvement in mechanical properties of the cast or hot worked
steels by refining the grain size.
Homogenisation of segregated castings and ingots.
Restore ductility of cold worked steels.
Improvement of machinability.
Relieve the internal stresses of cast, hot worked or welded
structures.
TYPES OF ANNEALING
Full Annealing

Isothermal Homogenisation
Annealing Annealing

Stress-relief Process
Annealing Annealing

Spheroidisation
Annealing
AUSTENITISING TEMPERATURE
RANGES
FULL ANNEALING
Full annealing treatment for hypoeutectoid
steels consists of heating the steel to a
temperature above its upper critical
temperature ,soaking there for sufficient time to
obtain homogenous austenite and then,left to
cool in the furnace by switching it off.
THREE IMPORTANT STEPS:
Proper Austenitisating Temperature:
To obtain fine grains of austenite.
Depends on the carbon percentage.
20-40 degree Celsius above Ac3.
Soaking time:
To get homogenous austenite.
Minimum of 1hr for sections upto 25 mm.
Increased at 30 minutes for each additional 25mm of thickness.
Very slow cooling through A1:
At a rate of 30-50 degree Celsius per hour.
Austenite transforms to coarse grained ferrite and pearlite with large interlamellar spacing.
This induces softness and ductility but lowers the hardness and strength.
SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION FOR A HYPOEUTECTOID STEEL
TYPICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF A FULL
ANNEALED HYPO EUTECTOID STEEL

Coarse
Ferrite
Grain

Pearlite
 FOR HYPER EUTECTOID STEELS
Hyper eutectoid steels are annealed by heating to slightly
above Ac1 temperature only.
Fine grains of austenite are obtained hence with partly or
completely spheroidised cementite.
Slow cooling through A1 produces fine grains of pearlite and
spheroidised cementite.
BUT WHY NOT
ABOVE ACM?
BECAUSE:
Grain growth of austenite takes place invariably.
On slow cooling,such a steel gets proeutectoid cementite formed
at the grain boundaries as a thicker network along pearlite areas.
This excess cementite network is brittle and tends to be a plane of
weakness .
This will result in poor machinability.
Also heating above Acm takes time, more heat energy, less
productivity, more scaling and decarburisation with no advantage.
TYPICAL MICROSTRUCTURE OF A FULL
ANNEALED HYPO EUTECTOID STEEL
 SPHEROIDISATION ANNEALING
Spheroidisation Annealing is the process of heating,
soaking and cooling, invariably very slowly to produce
spheroidal pearlite or globular form of carbides in
steels (especially in high carbon steels and high alloy
tool steels)

Fig: Spheroidised Cementite in a Ferrite Matrix

WHY SPHEROIDISATION IS DONE?

To improve softness and ductility

To improve machinability.
To reduce hardness.

Fig: Reasons of increased softness and ductility of spheroidised pearlite

SPHEROIDISING METHODS
I. Prolonged holding at a temperature just below the
lower critical line(A1 line)
2. Pendulum Heating: heating and cooling alternately
between temperatures that are just above and just
below the lower critical line (A1 line).

3. Heating to a temperature above A1line and then

either cooling very slowly in the furnace or holding at
a temperature just below the A1 line.
STRESS RELIEF
ANNEALING
 WHY STRESS RELIEF ANNEALING ?
Internal residual stress may develop in metal pieces due to :
Plastic deformation processes (machining and grinding)
Non-uniform cooling of a piece that was processed or fabricated at an
elevated temperature (welding or casting)
Distortion and warpage may result if these residual stresses are not removed.
The material is heated to the recommended temperature, held long enough to
attain a uniform temperature, and finally cooled to room temperature slowly.
The annealing temperature is ordinarily a relatively low one such that effects
resulting from cold work and other heat treatments are not affected.
 PROCESS :
Slow furnace heating at a rate 100-150C/h up to 650.
Soaking for a time based on maximum thickness at a rate of 3-4
minutes/mm to attain uniform temperature.
Slow cooling at a rate of 50-100C/h to at least 300C, and then
cooled in air to room temperature.
 PURPOSE :
Cause relief of internal stresses developed during cold working,
welding, casting, forging etc.
Harden and strengthen metals.
Improve machinability.
Change grain size.
Soften metals for further (cold) working as in wire drawing or cold
rolling.
PROCESS ANNEALING
PROCESS ANNEALING involves heating the metal/alloy to
a temperature that is below the autenitizing temperature but
above the recrystallisation temperature , slowly cooling it in
furnace atmosphere.

Process annealing can also be referred to as sub-critical

annealing or recrystallisation annealing.

The temperature range is usually between 530K to 1000K

depending upon the alloy.
 The main aim of process annealing is to soften and
increase the ductility of a previously strain hardened metal.

New equiaxed strain free grains are nucleated at high-stress

regions in the cold worked microstructure,and hence
hardness and strength decrease,increasing the ductility.

Deformed Grains recrystallisation annealing Equiaxed Grains

cold-worked annealed
grains grains
HOMOGENISING ANNEALING

An annealing treatment carried out at a

high temperature, approaching the solidus
temperature, for a sufficiently long time
that inhomogeneous distributions of
alloying elements are reduced by
diffusional processes.
Why homogenising annealing is
needed?
The carbon steel ingot after solidification has
inhomogeneous structure. This leads to the poor
properties of the carbon steel.

How it is carried out?

The carbon steel alloy is heated to higher
temperature, hold it for certain amount of time and
cool it slowly to room temperature.
What is the result of homogenising
annealing?
Homogenising results in grain coarsening of
austenite, thereby impairing the properties.
Thus, steels after such heat treatment undergo
either normalising or full annealing.
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