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Daniel H. Herring In Part 1 of this latest installment of the Heat Treating
“The Heat Treat Doctor”®, President
The HERRING GROUP, Inc. Fastener series, the authors provide advice on the full
P.O. Box 884 gamut of thermal processing for fasteners.
Elmhurst, IL 60126-0884 USA
www.heat-treat-doctor.com in a composition range of 0.0005% to 0.003% is a common
Richard D. Sisson, Jr. addition to fastener steels. It is extremely effective as a hard-
George F. Fuller Professor ening agent and impacts hardenability. It does not adversely
Center for Heat Treating Excellence affect the formability or machinability. Boron permits the use
Director of Manufacturing and of lower carbon content steels with improved formability and
Materials Engineering machinability.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute During the steelmaking process, failure to tie up the free
100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01602 USA nitrogen results in the formation of boron nitrides that will pre-
www.wpi.edu/Academics/Research/CHTE vent the boron from being available for hardening. Titanium
and/or aluminum are added for this purpose. Therefore, it is
Tip 1: Know the Steelmaking Process important that the mill carefully control the titanium/nitrogen
In selecting the type of steel, attention should be given ratio. Both titanium and aluminum tend to reduce machinabil-
to the deoxidation practice for the grades used for fastener ity of the steel. However, the formability typically improves.
manufacturing. A number of factors should be considered such Boron content in excess of 0.003% has a detrimental effect on
as heat treated property requirements, heat treat conditions, impact strength due to grain boundary precipitation.
fastener size and steel availability, to name a few. In addition, trace element chemistry is an important con-
Silicon, for example acts as a ferrite strengthener and sideration since these tramp elements (e.g., titanium, niobium
therefore in the absence of aluminum, produces steel with and aluminum) may retard carburization.
somewhat greater hardenability. Silicon killed steel tends to
have coarse (large) austenitic grains. For the same carbon Tip 3: Control the Annealing Process
grade and heat treatment conditions with and without alu- Spheroidize annealing is an important step in the cold form-
minum, complete transformation of the fastener core during ing process for fasteners as it ensures that the microstructure
heat treatment can take place in a larger section using a coarse of the steel is soft and has maximum formability. Since the
grain steel. Silicon killed, fine grain has both silicon added fastener manufacturer does not often do this process, be sure to
as the deoxidizer followed by the addition of aluminum for specify and check on a routine basis the level of spheroidiza-
grain size control.
Austenitic grain size is not usually a factor for consider-
ation in cold forming, but has a significant effect in subsequent
fastener heat treatment. Aluminum not only deoxidizes the
steel, but also refines the grain size (aluminum killed steel).
Aluminum also reacts with nitrogen in the steel to form
aluminum nitride particles that precipitate both at the grain
boundaries and within the austenitic grains thus restricting the
size of the grains; even when the steel is reheated for carburiz-
ing or neutral hardening, hence the term fine grain.
In the two types where silicon is added, the silicon content
can have several ranges with the most common being 0.15% to
0.30%. When aluminum is added to these steels for grain size
control, the aluminum content is generally in the 0.015% to
0.030% range. The aluminum content in fully aluminum killed Strict control of the fastener heat treating process is essential.
steels is generally 0.015% to 0.055%, somewhat higher on
average since the aluminum must both deoxidize and control
grain size at the same time.
The disadvantage of silicon killed steels is reduced duc-
tility and tool life during cold heading because of its ferrite
strengthening characteristic. Aluminum killed steels are usu-
ally more formable and hence provide somewhat improved
tool life (e.g., heading operations), but show reduced heat treat
response, particularly in larger size fasteners. For this reason,
the recommended maximum diameter for oil quenched alumi-
num killed carbon grades is typically 4.8 mm (0.190").