The Heat Treat Doctor

Daniel H. Herring | 630-834-3017 | heattreatdoctor@industrialheating.com

Material Certication Sheets:

What They Are and How They Help

h trying to determine a materials response

hen
to heat treatment, it is important to understand
the
th form, prior treatments, chemical composition,
grain size, hardenability and perhaps even
t
the mechanical properties from which the parts were manufactured. The certication sheet for the material in question supplies such information.
Sadly, they are seldom consulted until after
a problem has occurred. Its time to learn
what these documents are, why they are
so useful and how to interpret them. Lets
learn more.

Form and Prior (Mill) Treatment

Knowing the form, size and origin of the
raw material can help the metallurgist or heat treater anticipate
how the material will behave during manufacturing and change
during heat treatment. For example, the material may be hot or
cold rolled and be supplied from bar stock, tubing, wire, strip or
plate. The material may be wrought, cast, forged or made from
powder-metallurgy methods. The material certication sheets also
tell you the source and prior mill treatment. A forging may have
been normalized at the mill or may need this type of treatment before manufacturing component parts. Bar stock may be annealed
to a lamellar or spheroidized structure for machining or wire partially annealed after being drawn.

chromium (Cr) or copper (Cu). Machinability is improved by adding lead (Pb), sulfur (S) or selenium (Se). High-temperature properties are retained by adding tungsten (W) or molybdenum (Mo).
Most of the alloying elements, either singularly or in combination,
service more than one of these purposes.
Grain Size
Grain size can have a signicant effect on heat treatment. Steels
with ASTM grain size 1-4 are considered coarse grain while 5-8
are considered ne grain (Table 2). Large (coarse) grain size is
generally associated with greater hardenability but lower hardness
(strength) and ductility. In heat-treated steels, the grain size after
heat treatment (typically but not always martensite) is not readily measured. Instead, we measure the size of the prior austenite
grains since it can be correlated to the properties of the heat-treated steels. Special etching procedures may well be needed to reveal
these prior grain boundaries.

Steelmaking Process and Applicable Standards

There can be subtle but meaningful differences in products made
via Basic Oxygen Furnaces (BOF), primarily hot-metal-based steelmaking, and those made via Electric Arc Furnaces (EAF), primarily scrap-based practices. The material may be aluminum killed
(ne grain) or silicon killed (coarse grain) and/or treated by various other elemental additions (e.g., calcium, tellurium). ASTM,
AMS, AISI, SAE or other similar U.S. or international standards
may be called out and should be consulted prior to heat treatment.
Chemistry
Different chemical elements inuence the response of a material
to heat treatment (Table 1 - online only). In general, the greater
the amount (e.g., weight percentage) of the alloying element(s),
the more pronounced the effect would be. For example, greater
strength is achieved by adding carbon (C), manganese (Mn) or
nickel (Ni). Corrosion resistance can be enhanced by adding
18 December 2011 - IndustrialHeating.com

Fig. 1. A typical material certication sheet[1]

rial H

TH

Table 2. Austenite grains in steel (McQuaid Ehn) [3]

ASTM grain size

Number of grains per

in2

at 100X

Diameter (in microns)

Table 3. Inuence of typical impurities on mechanical

properties [4]
Form

Mechanical properties inuenced

Sulde
and oxide
inclusions

Ductility, Charpy impact value, anisotropy

Formability (elongation, reduction of area
and bendability)
Cold forgeability, drawability
Low-temperature toughness
Fatigue strength

31.8

Solid solution

Solid solubility (enhanced), hardenability

22.5

Settled
dislocation

Strain aging (enhanced), ductility and

toughness (lowered)

Pearlite and
cementite

Dispersion (enhanced), ductility and

toughness (lowered)

Carbide
and nitride
precipitates

Precipitation, grain rening (enhanced),

toughness (enhanced)
Embrittlement by intergranular
precipitation

) 1.5

254

1.5-3

180

3-6

127

6-12

89.8

12-24

63.5

24-48

44.9

48-96

) 96

Many of the important mechanical properties of steel, including yield strength and hardness, the ductile-brittle transition temperature and susceptibility to environmental embrittlement, can
be improved by rening the grain size. The improvement can often
be quantied using the Hall-Petch relationship. The quantitative
improvement in properties varies with d-1/2, where d is the grain
size. There are special techniques to further reduce the grain size.
The most common is the use of multiple quenches. This involves
repeating the austenizing and quenching process several times.

Element

Sulfur,
oxygen

Carbon,
nitrogen

Solid solubility (enhanced), hardenability

(enhanced)
Phosphorous

Solid solution

Temper brittleness
Separation, secondary work embrittlement

Hardness and Hardenability

Material certication sheets usually provide a report on the hardness and hardenability of the material after mill processing and,
when specied, supply information on the hardenability of the
material (by providing Jominy and/or Ideal Diameter (DI) values)
and in some cases on Carbon Equivalence (CE). Hardness is a
measure of how hard or strong the material is, while hardenability
may be thought of as the property that determines the depth and
distribution of hardness when steel is austenitized and quenched.
Cleanliness
Steel cleanliness is one measure of steel quality. The content of
elements such as phosphorus, sulfur, total oxygen, nitrogen and
hydrogen are usually, but not always, minimized. Likewise, the
amount, morphology and size distribution of various species of
nonmetallic inclusions should generally be minimized (Table 3).
It is well known that the individual or combined effect of carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen and total oxygen in
steel can have a remarkable inuence on steel properties, such as
tensile strength, formability, toughness, weldability, cracking resistance, corrosion resistance and fatigue resistance.
Mechanical Properties
When requested or specied, the common mechanical properties shown on material certication sheets include some combination of strength, ductility and/or toughness. Examples include
tensile and yield strength, percent elongation, reduction in area
and Charpy values. If the customer requests special testing, these
results are reported as well. In other instances, the customer may
20 December 2011 - IndustrialHeating.com

request specic mechanical testing, which will also be reported on

the material certication sheet. The heat treater should pay particular attention to all mechanical-property data when designing
his recipes and choosing his equipment and processing parameters.
In Conclusion
Material certication sheets are an invaluable tool for metallurgists and heat treaters and should be consulted before any heat
treatment is performed on every load of parts. In this way, our
recipes and cycles can be optimized to take into account the particular circumstances surrounding how the steel was specied and
produced. IH
References
1. The Timken Company (www.timken.com)
2. Metallographers Guide: Irons and Steels, Chapter 1: Introduction to
Steels and Cast Irons, ASM International, 2002.
3. Morris, Jr., J.W., The Inuence of Grain Size on the Mechanical Properties
of Steel, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2001.
4. Republic Alloy Steels, Republic Steel, 1961, pp. 247 249.
5. Mr. Craig Darragh, AgFox, LLC, private correspondence.
6. Clean Steel, Part One, www.keytometals.com
7. www.about.com

Use this Mobile Tag to link to the

full column containing Table 1.