Heat Treatment of Steels

Steel = 0.06% to 1.0% carbon

Must have a carbon content of at least .6%
(ideally) to heat treat.
Must heat to austenitic temperature range.
Must rapid quench to prevent formation of
equilibrium products.
Basically crystal structure changes from BCC to
FCC at high Temp.
The FCC can hold more carbon in solution and
on rapid cooling the crystal structure wants to
return to its BCC structure.
It cannot due to trapped carbon atoms.
The net result is a distorted crystal structure
called body centered K.SRIYOGI
tetragonal called 2
martensite.
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High Temperature Tempering

During this stage of tempering , cementite particles
become coarse.
Except this there is no other change in the structure.
When the particles are resolvable by optical
microscope , they appear to be spheroidal in shape
and the structure is called as SPHERODITE.
When the particles are sufficiently fine which hardly
can be resolved, the structure is called SORBITE.
Except these two , all other structures are called as
Tempered martensites.

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 Diffusion Hardening
Most Common Types:
Carburizing
Nitriding
Cyaniding

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Carburizing
The surface layers of low carbon steel are
enriched with carbon up to 0.8-1.0%.
The source of carbon may be a solid medium, a
liquid or a gas.
In all cases, the carbon enters the steel at the
surface and diffuses into the steel as a function of
time at an elevated temperature.
Carburizing is done at 920-950C. This fully
austenitic state is essential.
If carburizing is done in the ferritic region, the
carbon, with very limited solubility in ferrite,
tends to form massive cementite particles near the
surface, making theK.SRIYOGI
subsequent heat treatment6
difficult.
 Pack Carburizing
Gas Carburizing
Liquid Carburizing

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[Diffusion Hardening ] Carburizing:

Pack carburizing most common:
Part surrounded by charcoal treated with activating
chemical – then heated to austenite temperature.
Charcoal forms CO2 gas which reacts with excess
carbon in charcoal to form CO.
CO reacts with low-
low-carbon steel surface to form
atomic carbon.
The atomic carbon diffuses into the surface.
Must then be quenched to get hardness.

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 Gas carburizing
Process is conceptually the Same as pack carburizing
except that CO gas is supplied to a heated furnace
and the reduction reaction of deposition of carbon is
methane or propane or natural gas.
This process overcomes most of the problems of
pack carburizing and is particularly suitable for the
large volume production.
The temperature diffusion is as good as it can be with
a furnace.
The only concern is to safely contain the CO gas.
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Gas Carburizing

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 Liquid Carburizing
The liquid carburizing is performed for shallow
cases
The steel parts which are to be carburized are
immersed in a molted carbon rich bath.
In the past , such a baths have cyanide a the main
component.
Safety concerns have led to non toxic baths that
achieve the same result.
The temperature of the bath is kept at 900degree C.
The parts after carburizing are directly immersed in
water.
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Liquid carburizing contd.,

The Advantages offered by this method over
other carburizing process are:
Rapid heat transfer from bath to the surface of
the parts.
Little chances of decarburization and oxidation
as a result there is minimum distortion in the
final shape of the part.

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 Liquid Carburizing

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Heat treatment after Carburizing

Direct Quenching
Double Quenching
Case Refining
Core Refining

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The Heat Treat Processes

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Even after carburizing, the core (0.1 to 0.3%)

and case (0.8%) still have different carbon
contents and hence the carburized article will
have variations of mechanical properties from
interior to surface.
The prolonged heating in austenite range does
not homogenize the contents rather caused
the formation of coarse grains which is
undesirable from the view point of
toughness, hence further Heat treatment is
requuired,
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 Refining of a core
First of all heating is done for core material just above
its upper critical temperature (723degree C) so that
coarse ferrite and pearlite will be replaced by fine
grained austenite.
Then it is water quenched which produces a mixture of
fine grained ferrite and a little martensite.
During this Heat treatment, case will be of coarse
grained martensite and hence second Heat treatment is
required to refine the grains of the case.

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Refining of Case
The article is now heated to 760 degree C.so
that structure of case changes to fine grained
austenite followed by quenching.
Finally it is tempered at 200 degree C to
relieve any quenching stresses present in the
article.

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Diffusion Hardening - Nitriding:
Nitrogen diffused into surface being treated.
Nitrogen reacts with steel to form very hard
iron and alloy nitrogen compounds.
Process does not require quenching – big
advantage.
The case can include a white layer which can
be brittle – disadvantage
More expensive than carburizing

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Nitriding
Nitriding is carried out in the ferritic region.
No phase change occurs after nitriding.
During nitriding, pure ammonia decomposes to yield
nitrogen which enters the steel.
The solubility of nitrogen in ferrite is small. Most of
the nitrogen, that enters the steel, forms hard nitrides
(e.g., Fe3N).
The temperature of nitriding is 500-590oC.
The time for a case depth of 0.02 mm is about 2 hr.
In addition to providing outstanding wear resistance,
the nitride layer increases the resistance of carbon steel
to corrosion in moist atmospheres.
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Source of nitrogen

Reduction process: 2NH3 2N + 3H

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2
23

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Cyaniding
Cyaniding is done in a liquid bath of NaCN,
with the concentration varying between 30
and 97%.
The temperature used for cyaniding is lower
than that for carburizing and is in the range
of 800-870C.
The time of cyaniding is 1-3 hr to produce a
case depth of 0.25 mm or less

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Replica transmission electron micrograph showing the structure of
bainite. A grain of bainite passes from lower left to upper right
hand corners,which consists of elongated and needle-shaped
particles of Fe3C within a ferrite matrix. The phase surrounding 27the
bainite is martensite K.SRIYOGI

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 K.SRIYOGI 29

Isothermal Transformation (or TTT) Diagrams

(Temperature, Time, and % Transformation)

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 Determination of TTT Diagram
Heat large number of steel pieces of a size suitable
for metallography in the austenitic region.
Throughout the experiment the austenizing
temperature must be kept constant. During heating,
oxidation and decarburization should be avoided by
suitable measures such as by the use of salt baths.
Soak these samples for sufficient time so as to
obtain homogenous austenite. The time for soaking
should also be kept constant throughout the study.
Transfer all these samples quickly into a salt bath
kept in another furnace as some constant
temperature between A1 and Ms.
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Remove all these samples quickly one by one at fixed interval

of time and quench them in brine or cold water. Due to this, the
the
untransformed austenite is transformed to martensite.
Study these samples metallographically and find out the time of
start of that particular transformation and the end of
transformation.
Similar studies are conducted at different temperatures and
times of start and end of transformation are determined.
The obtained times at different isothermal transformation
temperatures are plotted on temp Vs time graph and smooth
curves are drawn through these points.
For showing martensite transformation two straight lines are
drawn one at Ms and other at Mf which indicate the start and
finish of martensite transformation.
The Resulting diagram is called as TTT diagram.

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 TTT Diagrams

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Heat Treatment of Steel (TTT Diagram)

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34
Eutectoid Steel

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Image of Pearlite

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 Hypoeutectoid Steel

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Hypereutectoid Steel

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 Several cells form a crystal, if many crystals are growing in a
melt at the same time, where they meet = grain boundry as
shown below:

Mat’l
constants

ky
σ y = σo +
d

Average
grain
diameter

Called Hall-Petch
equation

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Work Hardening
Work hardening, or strain hardening,
results in an increase in the strength of a
material due to plastic deformation.

Plastic deformation = adding dislocations –

as dislocation density increases, they tend
to “tie up” and don’t move.

Ludwik’s Equation:

Strain hardening index

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For this particular steel want to coolK.SRIYOGI

from about 1400 F to <400 F in about 1 44
second!
 Flame Hardening

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Flame hardening Profiles white areas for

typical mechanical components

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 Induction Hardening

Etched surface

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Vaccum carburizing

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Carburizing furnace

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Bell type furnace for iron nitriding
carburizing

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Thanks to Dr GOOGLE…

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