Steels:

Part 3

Designation Scheme:
AISISAE number system
Generally a 4-digit number
Read as 2 two-digit pairs
1080 ten eighty
4140 forty-one forty
8620 eighty-six twenty

 The first two digits represent chemical

family
10 = plain carbon (no intentional alloy
additions)
Other = alloyed steel

Last two digits designate the points of

carbon (i.e. carbon content)
One point = 0.01%

1080 = plain carbon steel with 0.80%

carbon
4140 = alloy steel with 0.40% carbon

Heat Treatment:
Any elevated temperature process
whose intended purpose is to alter
the structure and properties of a
material
Typically associated with
establishment of final properties

 A family of treatments exists to

facilitate ease of manufacture
Weaken (less force required for
shaping)
Enhance ductility
Enhance machinability

Equilibrium conditions produce the

weakest, most ductile structures
Slow cools
Long times at elevated temperatures
Guiding Tool: equilibrium phase
diagram

Processing Heat
Treatments:
Full anneal
Normalize
Process anneal
Spheroidize
Isothermal anneal
Austemper

Processing Heat
Treatments:
Full annealapplicable to all
steels

Erase the prior structure by reforming

austenite and then transform it under
near-equilibrium conditions by slowly
cooling in a furnace
Requires lengthy furnace treatment
and changes of furnace temperature
Gives weakest, most ductile of all
possible products (coarse pearlite in
eutectoid steel)
Produces a uniform structure and
properties at all locations since the

Processing Heat
Treatments:
Normalizeapplies to all steels
Erase the starting structure by reforming
austenite and then transform it by
removal from the furnace and cooling in
still air
The resulting structure is not as weak or
as ductile as full anneal (fine pearlite for
eutectoid steel)

Processing Heat
Treatments
Process anneal
Used only with low carbon steels (< 0.25
C -- structure is largely ferrite)
Recrystallizes cold worked ferrite to
restore ductility
Stay well below A1 temperature
Changes the form of the microstructure
not the microstructure itself. We do
not want to transform back to austenite!

Processing Heat
Treatments
Spheroidize
Used to enhance the machinability of
high carbon steels, >0.6 C (structures
with > 75% pearlite)
Heat and hold for a long time below the
A1
Carbide sheets break up into spheriodal
particles of Fe3C

Simple Heat Treatments

Isothermal Heat
Treatments

Only valid use of the T-T-T diagram

Isothermal anneal:
Isothermal heat treatment below A1 but
above the nose to produce pearlite

Austemper:
Isothermal heat treatment below the
nose but above Ms to produce bainite

Isothermal Heat
Treatments

Final Heat Treatments:

Desire is almost always to strengthen
Generally involves non-equilibrium
conditions
Rapid cools or quenches

The equilibrium phase diagrams will

not be a useful tool

Quench and Temper Heat Treatment

Consider the plot of Ms and Mf versus
carbon content for plain carbon steels
NOTE: For high carbon steels, a sub-zero
cooling may be necessary to complete the
transformation

 Retained austenite
Results from incomplete transformation
Product is soft and weak when we want
strong
It can subsequently transform
Dimensions change with transformation

Residual stresses
In martensite, the surface is in tension
Can cause surface cracking (quench
cracks)
Martempering can be used to reduce
stresses and cracking

 CCT diagrams -- (Continuous Cooling

Transformation)
Provide for more realistic cooling of
reasonable sized items
Can now account for different cooling of
surfaces and center
Transformations shift to longer times
Enables identification of the critical
cooling rate necessary to produce all
martensite

CCT Diagram