HEAT TREATMENT

WHAT IS HEAT TREATMENT?

• Heat treatment is a process of combination of
heating and cooling operations, timed and
applied to metals and alloys in their solid state
to obtain desired properties.
CLASSIFICATION HEAT TREATMENT
1. Annealing:- On the basis of
a) Heat treatment temp
I) Full annealing
II) Partial annealing
III) Sub critical
b) Phase transformation
I) First order annealing
II) Second order annealing
c) Specific purposes
I) Diffusion annealing
II) Spheroidizing annealing
III) Full annealing
IV) Recrystallization annealing
2. Normalising
3. Tempering
4. Austempering
5. Martempring
6. Sub-zero treatment
7. Patenting
 HARDENING HEAT TREATMENT
1. Through hardening
2. Surface hardening (Case hardening)
a) Surface hardening without changing the
surface chemistry of steel
I) Introduction hardening
II) Flame hardening
b) Surface hardening by changing the surface
chemistry of steel
I) Carburising
* pack or solid Carburising
* Liquid Carburising
* Gas Carburising
II) Cyaniding
III) Nitriding
PROCESS DESCRIPTION
 Annealing
Heating the metal or alloy to pre-determine temp,
holding at this temp and finally cooling at very
slow rate.
Objective :-
1. Relieves internal stresses developed during
solidification, machining, forging, rolling,
welding etc.
2. Improve or restore ductility and toughness.
3. To enhanced machinability.
 Annealing
4. Eliminate chemical non-uniformity.
5. To refine grain size and grain structure.
6. Enhance magnetic and electrical properties.
7. Reduce gases content in steel.
 Process variables annealing
* Austenitizing temperature:-
hypo-eutectoid dteel = Ac3 + (30-50 oC)
Eutectoid steel = A1 + (30-50 oC)
Hype-eutectoid steel = Acm + 50 oC
*Austenitizing or soaking time:-
soaking for a sufficient length of time at
austenitizing temp to convert
( ferrite + pearlite ) complete austenite
* Cooling:- Furnace cooling
 Three stages of annealing
– Heating to the desired temperature : The material is
austenitized by heating to 15 to 40C above the A3 or A1 lines
until equilibrium is achieved (i.e., the alloy changes to
austenite),
• Soaking or holding time: The material is held for 1h at the
annealing temperature for every inch of thickness (a rule of
thumb)
– Cooling to room temperature: cooling rate of 100°F/hr is
typical for full annealing. Done in furnace itself.
 Normalising
Heating the steel to about 40-50 oC above the
upper critical temp, holding for proper time and
then cooling in still air or slightly agitated air to
room temperature
Obejective :-
To produce harder & stronger steels compared to
fully annealed steel.
• Grain size refinement of steel.
• Improve machinability, ductility & toughness.
• Homogenize chemical composition of cast
ingots.
 Process variable of normalising

• Austenitizing temperature
Hypo-eutectoid steel = Ac3 + 50 oC
Eutectoid steel = A1 + 50 oC
• Austenitizing time sufficient length of
time .
• Cooling pattern cooling in still air or slighty
agitated air.
 Heat Treatment of Steel
• Most heat treating operations begin with heating the
alloy into the austenitic phase field to dissolve the
carbide in the iron
• Steel heat treating practice rarely involves the use of
temperatures above 1040°C
• Classification
– Heating and rapid cooling (quenching)
– Heating and slow cooling
Figure: Heat Treatment Range for Carbon
Steels
 Purpose of heat treatment:
• Improvement in ductility
• Relieving internal stresses
• Grain size refinement
• Increase of strength and hardness
• Improvement in machinability and
toughness.
 Factors involved

• Temperature upto which material is heated

• Length of time that the material is held at
theelevated temperature
• Rate of cooling
• The surrounding atmosphere under the
thermal treatment.
 Effects of Heat treatment

Annealing & Normalizing Hardening or Quenching

Air Oil Water

Furnace Cooling
Cooling Quenching Quenching

 Softer, less strong Harder and stronger 

 More ductile More brittle 

 Less internal stress More internal stress 

 Less distortion, cracking More distortion, cracking 

The Iron–Iron Carbide Phase Diagram

F
E L + Fe3C
P G
2.14 4.30

M
O
N 0.76 H
0.022

Cementite Fe3C
C
6.70
 Spheroidising
1. Heat to just below Lower Critical
Temperature. (about 650-700 deg C)
2. Cool very slowly in the furnace.
3. Structure will now be spheroidite, in which
the Iron Carbide has ‘balled up’.
4. Used to improve the properties of medium
and high carbon steels prior to machining or
cold working.
 Tempering
• The brittleness of martensite makes hardened
steels unsuitable for most applications.
• Different cooling rates between edge and core
of components result in internal stresses.
• This requires the steel to be tempered by re-
heating to a lower temperature to reduce the
hardness and improve the toughness.
• This treatment converts some of the
martensite to bainite.
Tempering Temperatures
 Isothermal Heat Treatments
• Austempering - The isothermal heat
treatment by which austenite transforms to
bainite.
• Isothermal annealing - Heat treatment of a
steel by austenitizing, cooling rapidly to a
temperature between the A1 and the nose of
the TTT curve, and holding until the austenite
transforms to pearlite.
 Induction Hardening
• Surface to be hardened is heated using
inductive heating.
• Depth of hardness can be closely monitored
by controlling current.
• Time required for the process is less.
• Used for producing hard surfaces on
crankshafts, axles, gears etc.
 Metals

Ferrous metals Non-ferrous metals

Steels Cast Irons

Plain carbon steels Grey Iron

Low carbon steels White Iron

Medium carbon steels Malleable & Ductile Irons

High carbon steels

Low alloy steels

High alloy steels

Stainless & Tool steels

The steels shown in blue can be heat treated to

harden them by quenching.
 Hardening Temperatures
• The temperatures for hardening depend on the
carbon content.
• Plain carbon steels below 0.4% will not harden by
heat treatment.
• The temperature decreases from approx 820 °C
to 780 °C as carbon content increases from 0.4%
up to 0.8%.
• Above 0.8% the temperature remains constant at
780 °C.
• Hardening temperature same as that for
normalising
 Surface Hardening
• Selectively Heating the Surface - Rapidly heat
the surface of a medium-carbon steel above
the A3 temperature and then quench.
• Case depth - The depth below the surface of
a steel at which hardening occurs by surface
hardening and carburizing processes.
• Case Hardening : Carburizing
• Cyaniding , Carbonitriding
• Flame Hardening
 Case Hardening
• The primary purpose of case hardening is to
produce a surface which is resistant to wear while
maintaining the overall toughness and strength of
the steel core.
• Normally used on a steel with a low carbon
content and introduces carbon by diffusion
(carburising) into the local surfaces requiring
treatment.
• Heating steel in the presence of a solid, liquid or
gas rich in carbon.
 Cyaniding
• Hardening the surface of steel with carbon
and nitrogen obtained from a bath of liquid
cyanide solution.
• Steel is heated in molten cyanide at about 850
°C followed by quenching.
• Carbon and nitrogen are absorbed by steel.
 Nitriding
• Another process called Nitriding consists of
the diffusion of nitrogen.
• Nitrogen is introduced into steel by passing
ammonia gas through a muffle furnace
containing the steel to be nitrided.
• Temperature used is below the lower critical
temperature
• Greater resistance to wear and corrosion,
greater surface hardness.
 Carbonitriding
• Hardening the surface of steel with carbon
and nitrogen
• Steel is heated in a gaseous mixture of
ammonia and hydrocarons
 Flame Hardening
• Heating the surface being hardened above the
upper critical temperature with an oxy acetylene
flame before quenching it in a spray of water.
• This is a surface hardening process resulting in a
hard surface layer of about 2mm to 6mm deep.
• The main difference between this process and
other surface hardening processes is that the
composition of the steel being hardened is not
changed.
 Strain Hardening
• Phenomenon where ductile metals become
stronger and harder when they are deformed
plastically is called strain hardening or work
hardening.
• Increasing temperature lowers the rate of
strain hardening.
• Hence materials arestrain hardened at
lower temperatures, thus also called cold
working.
 Precipitation Hardening
• Foreign particles can also obstruct movement of dislocations
and increase strength of the material.
• The foreign particles can be introduced in two ways
– precipitation
– mixing-and-consolidation technique.
• Precipitation hardening is also called age hardening because
strength increases with time.
 Objectives of heat treatment (heat
treatment processe
The major objectives are
• to increase strength, harness 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, normalising)

• to remove internal stresses induced by differential

deformation by cold working, non-uniform cooling from high
temperature during casting and welding (stress relief
annealing)
• to improve machineability (full annealing and
normalising)

• to improve cutting properties of tool steels (hardening

and tempering)

• to improve surface properties (surface hardening,

corrosion resistance-stabilising treatment and high
temperature resistance-precipitation hardening, surface
treatment)

• to improve electrical properties (recrystallization,

tempering, age hardening)

• to improve magnetic properties (hardening, phase

transformation)
 Recovery
• Takes place at low temperatures of annealing
• The point imperfections created during plastic
deformations are absorbed at grain boundaries
• Dislocations of opposite sign come together and
mutually annihilate each other.
• Some of the stored internal strain energy is
relieved by virtue of dislocation motion, as a
result of enhanced atomic diffusion at the
elevated temperature.