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Heat Treatment
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Heat Treatment
Heat treating is a group of industrial and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and
sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical.
Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve
a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material.
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Objectives of Heat Treatment
• To increase strength, hardness and wear resistance (bulk
hardening, surface hardening)
• To increase ductility and softness (tempering,
recrystallization annealing)
• To increase toughness (tempering, recrystallization
annealing)
• To obtain fine grain size (recrystallization annealing, full
annealing, normalizing)
• To remove internal stresses induced by differential
deformation by cold working, non-uniform cooling from high
temperature during casting and welding (stress relief
annealing)
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Objectives of Heat Treatment
• To improve machineability (full annealing and
normalizing)
• To improve cutting properties of tool steels (hardening
and tempering)
• To improve surface properties (surface hardening,
corrosion resistance-stabilizing treatment and high
temperature resistance-precipitation hardening,
surface treatment)
• To improve electrical properties (recrystallization,
tempering, age hardening)
• To improve magnetic properties (hardening, phase
transformation
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Heat Treatment Design Parameters
All basic heat treatment processes involve transformation of austenite
structure.
Heat Treatment in steel alloys
STEELS CAN B E HEAT TREATED B ECAU SE O F THE
STRU CTU RAL CHAN G ES THAT CAN
TAK E P LACE W ITHIN SO LID IRO N -CARB O N ALLO Y S
Anneali A softening treatment applied to steel (may or may
not be cold worked) to increase ductility at the
ng expense of hardness and strength
Normali Increases Strength of steel suitable for many
engineering applications
zing
Hardenin Increases the hardness of steel by 2-3 times
g
Temperi A specialized treatment applied to hardened steel
to recover strength at the cost of lower hardness
ng
SOAKING TEMPERATURE IS
USUALLY 50 TO 100 C ABOVE
UPPER CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
(A3) FOR HYPO-EUTECTOID STEEL
AND USUALLY 50 TO 100 C ABOVE
LOWER CRITICAL TEMPERATURE
(A3,1) FOR HYPER-EUTECTOID
STEEL
Heat
Heat Treatment Fundamentals
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Heat Treatment
Annealing:
Annealing involves heating the material to a predetermined temperature
and hold the material at the temperature and cool the material to the room
temperature slowly. The process involves:
1) Heating of the material at the
elevated or predetermined
temperature
2) Holding the material (Soaking) at
the temperature for longer time.
3) Very slowly cooling the material
to the room temperature.
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Annealing: Process Annealing
This process is extensively used in the treatment of sheets and wires.
In this treatment, steal (or any material) is heated to a temperature below the
lower critical temperature, and is held at this temperature for sufficient time and
then cooled.
Cooling rate is of little
importance as the process is being
done at sub critical temperatures.
The purpose of this treatment is
to reduce hardness and to increase
ductility of cold-worked steel so
that further working may be carried
easily.
Parts which are fabricated by cold
forming such as stamping, extrusion
and drawing are frequently given
this treatment as an intermediate
step.
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Annealing: Stress Relieving
Internal stresses are those stresses which can exist within a body in the absence of external
forces. These are also known as residual stresses are locked-in stresses.
These stresses are developed in operations like:
Solidification of castings, welding, machining, grinding, shot peening, surface hammering,
cold working, case hardening, electroplated coatings, precipitation and phase transformation.
These internal stresses under certain conditions can have adverse effects:
example: Steels with residual stresses under corrosive environment fail with stress
corrosion cracking.
These stresses also enhance the tendency
of steels towards warpage and dimensional instability.
Fatigue strength is reduced considerably
when residual tensile stresses are present in steel.
The problems associated with internal stresses
are more difficult in brittle materials than in
ductile materials
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Annealing: Normalizing
Normalized steels are generally stronger and harder than fully annealed
steels.
Steels are soft in annealed
condition and tend to stick during
machining.
Normalizing is used to
To improve Machinability.
To refine the grain structure,
To obtain uniform structure,
To decrease residual stresses,
Normalizing is the effective
way to eliminate the carbide
network.
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Heat Treatment
Annealing: Normalizing
Normalizing is similar to full annealing, except steel is generally cooled
in still air.
The normalizing consists of
heating steel to about 40-55 oC
above critical temperature
(Ac3 or Accm), and holding for
proper time and then cooling
in still air or slightly agitated
air to room temperature.
In some special cases,
cooling rates can be
controlled by either changing
air temperature or air
volume.
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Heat Treatment
Annealing: Normalizing
After normalizing, the resultant micro-structure should be pearlitic.
Since the temperature
involved in this process is more
than that for annealing , the
homogeneity of austenite
increases and it results in better
dispersion of ferrite and
Cementite in the final structure.
Results in better dispersion of
ferrite and Cementite in the final
structure.
The grain size is finer in normalized structure than in annealed structure.
Austenite +
Ferrite
Anneali
ng
At Room
At 720
Full Temperature
C
Austenite
Normaliz
ing
Heat
Microstructure: Annealed Microstructure: Normalized
Mild Steel Mild Steel
Heat
Full
Austenite
From Austenite zone steel is
directly quenched in to a water or
oil bath
MARTENSITE
needles
white regions
are RETAINED
Very high
AUSTENITE
hardness
Above Rc 55
Microstructure: Quenched Low
carbon Steel Heat
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Phase diagram of Al-Cu for precipitation
hardening
Structural changes during
tempering
Retained Austenite
is gone. At high
temperature
Martensite
becomes unstable
and breaks down
to cementite
globules in ferrite
matrix Heat
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Heat Treatment
Quenching:
Quenching is a process of rapid cooling of materials from high
temperature to room temperature or even lower. In steels quenching
results in transformation of austenite to martensite (a non-equilibrium
constituent).
During cooling, heat must be extracted at
a very fast rate from the steel piece. This is
possible only when a steel piece is allowed
to come in contact with some medium which
can absorb heat from the steel piece with in a
short period.
Under ideal conditions, all the heat
absorbed by the medium should be rejected
to the surroundings immediately.
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Quenching:
The removal of heat during quenching is complex in the sense that heat
is removed in three stages.
1) Vapor Blanket,
2) Nucleate Boiling,
3) Convection.
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Quenching:
Vapor Blanket (stage 1)
As soon as the work-piece comes into contact with a liquid coolant
(quenchant), the surrounding quenchant layer is instantaneously heated up
to the boiling point of the quenchant and gets vaporized due to the high
temperature of the work- piece.
This acts as an insulator, preventing
the quenching oil from contacting the
metal surface. As a consequence, the rate
of cooling during this stage is slow.
At this stage the work piece is cooled
only by conduction and radiation
through the vapor film.
Only the surface is cooled
considerably prior to the formation of
vapor envelop.
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Quenching:
Nucleate Boiling (stage 2)
This second stage is also called as transport cooling stage or liquid
boiling stage. The temperature of the work-piece comes down, through
very slowly and the vapor blanket is no longer stable and collapses.
Metal surface comes into contact with the liquid/
quenchant. Violent boiling quickly removes heat
from the quenched component while forming
bubbles and being pushed away, resulting in the
cooler fluid coming into contact with the work
piece.
This happens till the temperature of the work
piece comes down to the boiling point of the liquid.
Maximum cooling rate is achieved during this
stage.
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Heat Treatment Unit 5
Quenching:
Convection (stage 3)
The third stage is called as the liquid cooling stage or the convection stage.
I starts when the temperature of the
surface becomes equal to the boiling
point of the quenchant.
Cooling at this stage takes place via
conduction and convection processes.
The rate of cooling is the slowest at
this stage.
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Quenching: Effect of Quenching Medium (Water)
Water has maximum cooling rate
amongst all common quenchants
except few aqueous solutions.
It is very cheap and easily disposed
off compared to other quenchants.
Hence water is used for carbon
steels, alloy steels and non-ferrous
alloys.
The layer if scale formed on the
surface during heating is also broken
by water quenching, thus eliminating
an additional process of surface
cooling.
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Quenching: Effect of Quenching Medium (OIL)
Most of the Oils used as quenchants
are mineral oils. These are in general
paraffin based and do not possess any
fatty oils.
Quenching in oil provides slower
cooling rates as compared to those
achieved by water quenching.
The slower cooling rate reduces the
possibility of hardening defects.
The temperature difference between
core and the case of work piece is less
for oil quenching than for water
quenching.
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Quenching: Effect of Quenching Medium (AIR)
Many alloy steels are capable of
getting hardened by cooling either in still
air or in a blast of air.
Such steels are popularly known as air
hardening steels.
These steels are almost free from
distortion problem. However, the
problem of oxidation during cooling
(quenching) may be encountered in
practice. Many grades of tool steels are
subjected to air hardening.
Cooling rates can be improved by
mixing air and water.
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Heat Treatment - Steel
Quenching: Effect of Quenching Medium :
Just the drastic water quench generates a fully martensite structure.
Although quenched in oil the austensite converts into suitably fine pearlite.
Accurate pearlite also results if the austenised eutectoid steel is air-cooled.
Though, if allowed to cool in furnace coarse pearlite is appearance.
Cooling Structure UTS Y. S. Hardness Elongation %
Media (N/mm2) (N/mm2) (Rc) (50 mm g. L)
Water Martensite 1700 - 65 Low
Oil Troostite 1100 550 35 5
Air Fine pearlite 850 270 25 8
Furnace Coarse pearlite 520 140 15 12
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Heat Treatment
Quenching: Effect of Quenching Medium
Coarse Pearlite
- Smaller DT:
colonies are
larger
Fine Pearlite
- Larger DT:
colonies are
smaller
Figure: Microstructure resulting
from Different Cooling Rates
Applied to Austenitized Samples of
Eutectoid Steel
Quenched Low carbon Steel Quenched and tempered Low c
Steel
Heat
Thermo chemical process
Or may be called as
Case Hardening
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening:
In many situations hard and wear resistance surface is required with the
tough core. Because of tough core the components can withstand impact
load. The typical applications requiring these conditions include gear
teeth, cams shafts, bearings, crank pins, clutch plate, tools and dies.
The combination of the these properties can be achieved by the
following methods:
1. Hardening and tempering the surface layers (surface hardening)
(i) Flame Hardening (ii) Induction Hardening
2. Changing the composition at surface layers (chemical heat
treatment or case hardening)
(i) Carburising (ii) Nitriding (iii) Carburising and Cyaniding
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Surface Hardening: Flame Hardening
The flame hardening involves heating the surface of a steel to a
temperature above upper critical point (850 oC) with a oxyacetylene flame
and then immediately quenched the surface with cold water.
Heating transforms the structure of surface layers to austenite, and the
quenching changes it to martensite.
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Surface Hardening: Flame Hardening
The surface layers are hardened to about 50 – 60 HRC. It is less expensive
and can be easily adopted for large and complex shapes.
Flame hardened parts must be tempered after hardening. The tempering
temperature depends on the alloy composition and desired hardness.
The flame hardening methods are suitable for the steels with carbon
contents ranging from 0.40 to 0.95% and low alloy steels.
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Induction Hardening
Induction hardening involves placing the steel components within a coil
through which high frequency current is passed. The current in the coil
induce eddy current in the surface layers, and heat the surface layers upto
austenite state.
Then the surface is immediately quenched with the cold water to
transfer the austenite to martensite. The principle of induction hardening
is:
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Induction Hardening
Advantages of induction hardening over flame hardening is its speed
and ability to harden small parts; but it is expensive. Like flame
hardening, it is suitable for medium carbon and low alloy steels.
Typical applications for induction hardening are crank shafts,
connecting rods, gears and cylinders.
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Carburising
Carburising is carried out on a steels containing carbon less than 0.2%.
It involves increasing the carbon contents on the surface layers upto 0.7 to
0.8%.
In this process, the steel is heated in contact with carbonaceous material
from which it absorbs carbon. This method is mostly used for securing
hard and wear resistance surface with tough core carburising is used for
gears, cams, bearings and clutch plates.
2 CO C + CO2
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Carburising
The Following methods are used to diffuse carbon into
surface layers:
1) Pack (solid) Carburising,
2) Gas Carburising,
3) Liquid Carburising.
Liquid Carburising
Gas Carburising
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Nitriding
Nitriding involves diffusion of nitrogen into the product to form nitrides.
The resulting nitride case can be harder than the carburized steel. This
process is used for alloy steels containing alloying elements (Aluminum,
Chromium and Molybdenum) which form stable nitrides.
Nitriding consists if heating a component in a retort to a temperature of
about 500 to 600 oC. Through the retort the ammonia gas is allowed to
circulate. At this temperature the ammonia dissociates by the following
reaction.
2 NH3 2N + 3H2
The atomic nitrogen diffuses into steel surface, and combines with the
alloying elements (Cr, Mo, W, V etc) to form hard nitrides. The depth to
which nitrides are formed in the steel depends on the temperature and the
time allowed for the reaction. After the nitriding the job is allowed to cool
slowly. Since there is no quenching involved, chances of cracking and
distortion of the component are less.
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Surface Hardening: Nitriding
The depth of nitrided case ranges from 0.2 to 0.4 mm and no machining is
done after nitriding.
Nitriding increase wear and corrosion resistance and fatigue strength of
the steel. Since nitriding is done at low temperature, it requires more time
than carburising, and also the capital cost if the plant is higher than
carburising.
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Heat Treatment
Surface Hardening: Cyaniding
Similar to carbonitriding, cyaniding also involves the diffusion of carbon
and nitrogen into the surface of steel. It is also called liquid carbonitriding.
The components are heated to the temperature of about 800 – 900 oC in a
molten cyanide bath consisting of sodium cyanide, sodium carbonate and
sodium chloride.
After allowing the components in the bath for about 15 – 20 minutes, they
are quenched in oil or water. Cyaniding is normally used for low-carbon
steels, and case depths are usually less than 0.25 mm.
It produces hard and wear resistance surface on the steels. Because of
shorter time cycles, the process is widely used for the machine components
subjected to moderate wear and service loads.
The process is particularly suitable for screws, small gears, nuts and bolts.
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Difference
