Heat Treatment Processes

Classification, Annealing, Normalising, Hardening,

Tempering, Martempering, Austempering, Maraging, etc.
Definition
An operation or combination of operations
involving heating and cooling of a metal/alloy in
solid state to obtain desirable conditions (e.g.,
that of relieved stresses) or properties (e.g.,
better machinability, improved ductility,
homogeneous structure)
Heat treatment is a stage in fabrication of
structures
Purpose of heat treatment
Cause relief of internal stresses developed
during cold working, welding, casting, forging,
etc.
Harden and strengthen metals
Improve machinability
Change grain size
Soften metals for further working as in wire
drawing or cold working
Improve ductility and toughness
 Increase heat, wear and corrosion resistance of
materials
Improve electrical and magnetic properties
Homogenize the structure to remove coring or
segregation
Classification
Various heat treatment processes may be defined as
1. Annealing
a. Stress-relief annealing
b. Process annealing
c. Spheroidising annealing
d. Full annealing
2. Normalising
3. Hardening
4. Tempering
5. Martempering
6. Austempering
7. Maraging
Fundamental principles of Heat treatment
Steel heat treatments are made possible by eutectoid
reaction in iron carbon system
All basic heat treatment processes for steel involve the
transformation or decomposition of austenite
Based on the principle that an alloy experiences change
in structure when heated above a certain temperature
and it undergoes again change in structure when cooled
to room temperature
Cooling rate is important factor, slow cooling rate above
critical range in steel produces pearlite whereas rapid
cooling will give rise to martensite
Steps of heat treatment
Heating a metal/alloy to definite temperature
Holding at that temperature for a sufficient
period to allow necessary changes
(austenisation) to occur
Cooling at a rate necessary to obtain desired
properties associated with changes in the nature
from size and distribution of micro-constituents
Annealing
Purpose, concept, types, etc.
Definition
Process of heating a metal which is in a
metastable or distorted structural state, to a
temperature which will remove the instability or
distortion and then cooling (usually at a slow
rate) so that the room temperature structure is
stable and strain free
purpose
Inducing a completely stable structure
Refining and homogenizing the structure
Reducing hardness
Improving machinability
Removing residual stresses
Removing gases
concept
When applied to ferrous alloys, the term
annealing generally implies full annealing
Any annnealing process reduces stress, but if the
treatment is applied solely to reduce stress than
its designated as stress relieving
(a) STRESS RELIEVING
Stress relief annealing relieves stresses produced
by casting, quenching, machining, cold working,
welding, etc.
Applies equally to ferrous and non-ferrous metals
Stress relief is often desirable when a casting is
liable to change dimensions to a harmful degree
during machining or use
Stresses if not relieved might later cause warpage
or even failure of the casting
 Thermal stress relieving requires heating the
casting to a temperature at which relaxation of
the elastic stress is brought about by plastic
deformation
Does not affect metallurgical structure of the
casting
The temperature range required for stress relief
varies form 0.3 MP to 0.4 MP (MP- melting
point)
(b) PROCESS ANNEALING
Usually subcritical (below the lower critical
temperature: A1) annealing
Applied to remove the effects of cold work to
soften and permit further cold work as in sheet
and wire industries
Done between processing operations thats why
the name process annealing
Ferrous alloys are heated to a temperature close to
but below lower limit of transformation range
(550-650C)
 Partial recrystallisation of the distorted ferrite
and since mild steel contains only a small
volume of strained pearlite, high degree of
softening is induced
Does not involve any phase change
(c) SPHEROIDISE ANNEALING
Involves subjecting steel to a selected temperature cycle,
usually within or near the transformation range in order to
produce a spheroidal or globular form of carbide in steel
Improves machinability
Facilitates a subsequent cold working operation
Obtains a desirable structure for subsequent heat treatment
Soften tool steels and some of the air hardening alloy steels
Spheroidising is extensively employed for high carbon (tool)
steels to transform lamellar pearlitic cementite into spheroidal
type
Cementite spheroids are embedded in a matrix of ferrite
 Spheroidizing condition is produced by one of the
following methods:
1) Heating steel and then prolonged holding at a
temperature just below lower critical line
i. No basic phase change takes place, surface tension causes
the cementite part of pearlite to assume a globular form
2) Heating and cooling steel, alternatively between
temperatures that are just above and just below lower
critical line
3) Heating to a temp above the lower critical line (e.g.,
between 730-770C) with subsequent holding at this
temperature followed by slow cooling
(d) FULL ANNEALING
Implies annealing a ferrous alloy by
austenitising and then cooling slowly through
the transformation range
Austenitizing temperature for hypoeutectoid
steels 723-910C and for hypereutectoid steels
is 723-1130C
 Full annealing thus involves:
Heating steel to proper annealing temperature in
austenite zone
Holding the steel object at that temperature for a
definite period of time depending upon its thickness
or diameter so that it becomes completely austenitic
Cooling very slowly the steel object through the
transformation range till the object acquires a low
temperature (because of slow cooling, annealing
comes close to follow Fe-C diag)
 Full annealing involves:
i. Refines grains
ii. Removes strains (from forging and castings)
iii. Induces softness
iv. Improves machinability
v. Improves formability
vi. Improves electrical and magnetic properties
NORMALIZING
Concept
Normalizing or air quenching consist in heating
steel to about 40-50C above its upper critical
temperature (i.e., A3 and Acm line) and if
necessary holding it at that temperature for a
short time and then cooling in still air at room
temperature
Differs from full annealing in that rate of cooling
is more rapid and no extended soaking period
 Structure obtained by normalising will depend
largely on the thickness of cross section a this
will affect the rate of cooling. Thin sections will
give much finer grains than thick sections
Purpose
Produces uniform structure
Refines the grain sixe steel
May achieve the required strength and ductility
in a steel that is too soft and ductile for
machining
Reduces internal stresses
Improves structures in welds
Produces harder and stronger steel than full
annealing
Cooling curves on TTT
diagram
 Cooling Curve-a: Very slow cooling rate,
typical of conventional annealing.
Transformation product is coarse pearlite with
low hardness
Cooling Curve-b: Transformation will start at
3 with the formation of coarse pearlite and finish
at 4, with the formation of medium pearlite.
Curve b involves faster rate of cooling than a and
may be considered typical of normalizing
 Cooling Curve d: typical of an intermediate
cooling rate and austenite will start to transform
at pt 5 to fine pearlite. As Ms line is crossed,
remaining austenite will transform to
martensite. Room temp thus consist of
combination of these two
Cooling Curve e: typical of a drastic quench,
substance remains austenite until Ms, and
changes to martensite between Ms and Mf
 Cooling curve ef: it is possible to form 100%
pearlite/martensite by continues cooling, but it
is not possible to form 100% bainite. Cooling
curve ef obtains a bainite structure by cooling
rapidly enough to miss the nose of curve and
then holding in the temperature range at which
bainite is formed until transformation is
complete
 Cooling curve g: is tangent to the nose of
TTT curve. Cooling rate is critical cooling rate
(CCR). Any rate equal to or faster than CCR will
form only martensite and slower than CCR will
form some softer transformation products such
as pearlite or bainite
MARTENSITE
SPHEROIDISED
ANNEALING
NORMALISED STEEL
HARDENING (By Quenching)
Introduction
Increases hardness by quenching
Hardening of steel requires the formation of martensite
Max % of hardness by quenching is obtained if they
contain between 0.35-0.6% C
Hardening followed by tempering
Hardens steel to resist wear
Enables steel to cut other metals
Improves strength, toughness and ductility
Develops best combination of strength and notch-
ductility
Procedure
Steel with sufficient carbon is heated 30-50C
above A3 line and held there for few time and
than cooled rapidly or quenched in a suitable
medium (brine, water, oil, etc) to produce
desired rate of cooling and a suitable hardening
steel
 Degree of hardness depends on
Composition of steel
Nature and properties of quenching material
Quenching temperature
Size of objective to be quenched
Homogeneity of austenite
Degree of agitation
Rate of cooling
Quenching Medium
Is the one into which heated metal objects are
plunged in order to withdraw heat from the
objects rapidly
Quenching medium must provide for a cooling
rate above the critical value (such as curves g
and e) to prevent austenite decomposition in the
pearlite
Types of Quenching media (in the
decreasing order of severity)
5 to 10% caustic soda (very drastic quench)
5 to 20% Brine (NaCl)
Cold water
Warm water
Mineral oil
Animal oil
Vegetable oil
Air (least drastic)
Stages of Quenching
Stage -1: Vapour-blanket cooling stage
At this stage the temperature of metal is
high
Because of high temperature, quenching
medium is vaporized at surface of the
metal and a thin stable film of vapour
surrounds the hot metal
Job is cooled by conduction and radiation
through the gaseous
 Stage -2: Vapour-transport cooling stage:
This stage starts when the metal has cooled to a
temperature at which the vapour film is no longer
stable
Vapour blanket is broken intermittently, alloying
liquid to touch the hot metal at one instant but
soon being pushed away from it by vapour bubbles
Since hot metal surface is wetted by quenching
liquid, violent boiling occurs
Very rapid cooling takes place in this stage that
soon brings the metal surface temperature below
the boiling point if liquid
 Stage -3: liquid cooling stage
Third stage begins when the metal surface
temperature just reaches the boiling point
of the quenching liquid
Cooling takes place by simple convection
and conduction
Rate of cooling decreases as the
temperature of metal falls
Rate of cooling is slowest in this stage