KULLIYYAH OF ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF MANUFACTURING & MATERIALS

WORKSHOP TECHNOLOGY
MME 1103

HEAT TREATMENT
MANUFACTURING AND MATERIALS DEPARTMENT MME1103
Workshop Technology Manual
Heat Treatment

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Modern demands of good quality products have made heat treatment an important
process for most engineering applications. Heat treatment involves the improvement
of properties of metals and alloys by changing their microstructure. Heat treatment
can be done to accomplish any number of objectives
• To diffuse carbon and alloying elements
• To soften the material
• To improve machinability
• To harden the material
• To increase toughness
• To increase wear resistance
• To stress relieve
Most engineering metals and alloys have simple crystal structures; like face centered
cubic (FCC), body centered cubic (BCC) and hexagonal closed packed (HCP). The
microstructure is made up of micro constituents (phases) present in the materials. The
engineering properties of a material depend mainly on number, size, distribution and
shape of grains of each phase. Let’s begin by reviewing the classification of
engineering material. This knowledge is essential to an understanding principals and
characteristics of heat treatment processes.

Material Classification
The range of materials in present use is very great indeed and the correct choice of an
engineering material is of importance to all engineers. It is convenient to classify
materials into various types that have common characteristic such as metals, polymer,
ceramics and composites. We will take only a closer look here on the metal group.
The metal group includes both ferrous and nonferrous as shown in figure 2.1.
The diagram in figure 2.2 shows outline of the stages in producing ferrous metals
such as wrought iron, cast iron, carbon steel and tool steels.
METALS

FERROUS NON-FERROUS

PIG IRON
WOUGHT IRON ALLOYS PURE
CAST IRON
(GREY-WHITE) BRASS ZINC COPPER

BRONZE TIN LEAD

CARBON STEELS
SOFT SOLDER ALUMINUM
DEAD MILD
MILD SPELTER
MEDIUM CARBON
HIGH CARBON DURALUMIN

Figure 2.1: Classification of metal

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Heat Treatment

Wrought Iron
If the carbon is completely removed from the steel, pure iron results. This soft, easily
worked metal. Wrought iron is the nearest approach to pure iron, having a
composition of less than 0.05% carbon and 0.05% slag inclusion (the rest is iron).
Wrought iron is produced from high quality pig iron. It has a characteristic of fiber
structure.

These fibers strengthen and toughen the structure. It has an excellent resistant to
sudden shocks and blows and thus it is widely used for manufacture of chains, hooks
and couplings. The ultimate tensile strength is about 330MN/m2 .

Dead mild steel

Dead mild steel has 0.1 to 0.15% carbon. It possesses high ductility and malleability
enabling it to be deep drawn and presses by cold working. It is easily forged and
welded.

Mild steel
This low carbon steel contains 0.15 to 0.35 carbon. It is probably the most widely
used material being easily cold worked or hot worked. It is a general purpose material
available in bars, plate, rods, sheet, wire and various structural sections.

Medium carbon steel

Medium carbon steel has 0.3 to 0.8% carbon. It has higher hardness and tensile
strength than mild steel. It is there for used for engineering components that are
subjected to bending stresses or wear as crank shafts, forging and axles, hammer
heads, screw drivers, spanners, wood saws, wire ropes and cold chisels.

High carbon steel

It is often referred as tool or cast steel. If carbon percentage exceeds 0.8% a brittle
constituent called cementite is present. The greater the percentage of carbon the
harder is the steel after the hardening process; this means that high carbon steel is
ideal for the manufacture of hand tools, shear blades, hih tensile wires, files, drills,
taps, dies, knives, etc.

Gray cast iron

The relatively low cost of gray cast iron has 3.2 to 3.5% carbon. Its low melting point
make it ideal for production of large components that require sliding surfaces and
absorb vibrations. The carbon exists mostly as free or uncombined form. It is
distributed throughout the iron as fine flakes of graphite. The graphite is important in
that it not only acts as a self lubricant when the material is drilled or machined, but
also to dampen vibration. It is extremely fluid when molten and is therefore suitable
for intricate casting, lathe beds, frames and sliding surfaces.

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Heat Treatment

Figure 2.2: Iron production

Iron carbon phase diagram

Ferrous metals have greatly different properties and microstructures with changes in
carbon content. These can be related to one another in terms of the iron carbon
diagram shown in figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3: Iron-Carbon phase diagram (Source: Kalpakjian “Manufacturing

Engineering and Technology)
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Workshop Technology Manual
Heat Treatment

Heat treatment of steel

Fundamentally, steel heat treatments involve one or more series of operations in
which the metal is heated to specific temperature, soaked for a time depends on its
volume and cooled under specified conditions to develop a required structures and
properties. There are five major forms of heat treatment for the standard steels shown
in table 2.1.

TABLE 2.1 Transformation Processes for Steels*

PROCESS PURPOSE PROCEDURE PHASES

Annealing To soften Slow cool from γ- stable α + carbide
range

Quenching To harden Quench to miss I-T curves Martensite†

Interrupted To harden without Quench, followed by Martensite†

Queching cracking slow cool from Ms to Mf

Austempering To harden without Quench, followed by α + carbide

forming brittle isothermal transformation
martensite above the Ms

Tempering To toughen (usually Reheating of martensite α + carbide

with minimal
softening
* See Fig. 9
† Steels containin martensite must be toughened by the tempering process

Figure 2.4: Iron-carbon phase diagram for heat-treatment process(Source: Kalpakjian

“Manufacturing Engineering and Technology)

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Heat Treatment

Annealing process
Full annealing is the process of slowly raising the temperature about 50 ºC (122 ºF)
above the Austenitic temperature line A3 or line ACM in the case of Hypoeutectoid
steels (steels with < 0.77% Carbon) and 50 ºC (122 ºF) into the Austenite-Cementite
region in the case of Hypereutectoid steels (steels with > 0.77% Carbon). It is held at
this temperature for sufficient time for all the material to transform into Austenite or
Austenite-Cementite as the case may be. It is then slowly cooled at the rate of about
20 ºC/hr (60 ºF/hr) in a furnace to about 50 ºC (122 ºF) into the Ferrite-Cementite
range. At this point, it can be cooled in room temperature air with natural convection.

The grain structure has coarse Pearlite with ferrite or Cementite (depending on
whether hypo or hyper eutectoid). The steel becomes soft and ductile as shown in
figure 2.5. We anneal cold worked metal to soften it and to reestablish its ductility.
The full anneal of steel for the machining of a gear blank, the steel is first austenized;
then furnace cooled. The temperature for the austenized varies according to carbon
content. Furnace cooled produces very coarse pearlite. The process anneal usually
carried out for small cross section products. As practical matter, this annealing
process is limited to low carbon subeutectic steel. If higher annealing temperature
were used, austenite would form and cooling be rapid enogh to form a brittle
martensite due to very large surface to volume ratio of products like wires and sheers.
Of course, the desired ductility would not be realized.

Figure 2.5: Microstructure during heat-treatment and after annealing process

Normalizing
Normalizing is the process of raising the temperature to over 60 º C (140 ºF), above
line A3 or line ACM fully into the Austenite range. It is held at this temperature to fully
convert the structure into Austenite, and then removed form the furnace and cooled at
room temperature under natural convection. This results in a grain structure of fine
Pearlite with excess of Ferrite or Cementite. The resulting material is soft; the degree
of softness depends on the actual ambient conditions of cooling. This process is
considerably cheaper than full annealing since there is not the added cost of controlled
furnace cooling.

The main difference between full annealing and normalizing is that fully annealed
parts are uniform in softness (and machinablilty) throughout the entire part; since the
entire part is exposed to the controlled furnace cooling. In the case of the normalized
part, depending on the part geometry, the cooling is non-uniform resulting in non-
uniform material properties across the part. This may not be desirable if further
machining is desired, since it makes the machining job somewhat unpredictable. In
such a case it is better to do full annealing.

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Heat Treatment

Spheroidization
It is an annealing process used for high carbon steels (Carbon > 0.6%) that will be
machined or cold formed subsequently. This is done by one of the following ways:

1. Heat the part to a temperature just below the Ferrite-Austenite line, line A1 or
below the Austenite-Cementite line, essentially below the 727 ºC (1340 ºF) line. Hold
the temperature for a prolonged time and follow by fairly slow cooling. Or

2. Cycle multiple times between temperatures slightly above and slightly below the
727 ºC (1340 ºF) line, say for example between 700 and 750 ºC (1292 - 1382 ºF), and
slow cool. Or

3. For tool and alloy steels heat to 750 to 800 ºC (1382-1472 ºF) and hold for several
hours followed by slow cooling.

All these methods result in a structure in which all the Cementite is in the form of
small globules (spheroids) dispersed throughout the ferrite matrix as shown in
figure.2.6 This structure allows for improved machining in continuous cutting
operations such as lathes and screw machines. Spheroidization also improves
resistance to abrasive.

Figure 2.6: Small globules of cementite after spheirodization pocess

Stress relief
Quenched steels are subject to distortion and possible cracking from the presence of
the residual stresses. A stress relief is necessary to remove these stresses. The
necessary heating temperature is relatively low as shown in figure 5b.
Figure 2.7 also summarizes the annealing process for steel.

Figure 2.7 Steel Heat Treatment Processes (Schematic). (a) Austenization processes. (b) Sub-
eutectoid processes

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Heat Treatment

Quenching
Hardness is a function of the Carbon content of the steel. Hardening of a steel requires
a change in structure from the body-centered cubic structure found at room
temperature to the face-centered cubic structure found in the Austenitic region. The
steel is heated to Autenitic region. When suddenly quenched, the Martensite is formed.
This is a very strong and brittle structure. When slowly quenched it would form
Austenite and Pearlite which is a partly hard and partly soft structure. When the
cooling rate is extremely slow then it would be mostly Pearlite which is extremely
soft. The microstructure representation is shown as the figure below.

Figure 2.8: Schematic microstructure for austenite, martensite, cementite, pearlite

coarse and fine.

Hardenability, which is a measure of the depth of full hardness achieved, is related to

the type and amount of alloying elements. Different alloys, which have the same
amount of Carbon content, will achieve the same amount of maximum hardness;
however, the depth of full hardness will vary with the different alloys. The reason to
alloy steels is not to increase their strength, but increase their hardenability — the
ease with which full hardness can be achieved throughout the material.

Usually when hot steel is quenched, most of the cooling happens at the surface, as
does the hardening. This propagates into the depth of the material. Alloying helps in
the hardening and by determining the right alloy one can achieve the desired
properties for the particular application.

Such alloying also helps in reducing the need for a rapid quench cooling — thereby
eliminate distortions and potential cracking. In addition, thick sections can be
hardened fully. Quenching is the act of rapidly cooling the hot steel to harden the
steel.

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Heat Treatment

Quench Media

1. Water: Quenching can be done by plunging the hot steel in water. The water
adjacent to the hot steel vaporizes, and there is no direct contact of the water with the
steel. This slows down cooling until the bubbles break and allow water contact with
the hot steel. As the water contacts and boils, a great amount of heat is removed from
the steel. With good agitation, bubbles can be prevented from sticking to the steel, and
thereby prevent soft spots.

Water is a good rapid quenching medium, provided good agitation is done. However,
water is corrosive with steel, and the rapid cooling can sometimes cause distortion or
cracking.

2. Salt Water: Salt water is a more rapid quench medium than plain water because the
bubbles are broken easily and allow for rapid cooling of the part. However, salt water
is even more corrosive than plain water, and hence must be rinsed off immediately.

3. Oil: Oil is used when a slower cooling rate is desired. Since oil has a very high
boiling point, the transition from start of Martensite formation to the finish is slow
and this reduces the likelihood of cracking. Oil quenching results in fumes, spills, and
sometimes a fire hazard.

4. Polymer quench: Polymer quenches that will produce a cooling rate in between
water and oil. The cooling rate can be altered by varying the components in the
mixture-as these are composed of water and some glycol polymers. Polymer quenches
are capable of producing repeatable results with less corrosion than water and less of a
fire hazard than oil. But, these repeatable results are possible only with constant
monitoring of the chemistry.

5. Cryogenic Quench: Cryogenics or deep freezing is done to make sure there is no

retained Austenite during quenching. The amount of Martensite formed at quenching
is a function of the lowest temperature encountered. At any given temperature of
quenching there is a certain amount of Martensite and the balance is untransformed
Austenite. This untransformed Austenite is very brittle and can cause loss of strength
or hardness, dimensional instability, or cracking.

Quenches are usually done to room temperature. Most medium carbon steels and low
alloy steels undergo transformation to 100% Martensite at room temperature.
However, high carbon and high alloy steels have retained Austenite at room
temperature. To eliminate retained Austenite, the quench temperature has to be
lowered. This is the reason to use cryogenic quenching.

The normalizing, hardening, and austempering heat treatment, which involve

austenitization, followed by controlled cooling or isothermal reaction, or a
combination of the two, can produce a variety of microstructures and greatly extend
the limits on the mechanical properties of ductile cast iron.

These microstructures can be separated into two broad classes:

• Those in which the major iron-bearing matrix phase is the thermodynamically

stable body-centered cubic (ferrite) structure

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Heat Treatment

• Those with a matrix phase that is a meta-stable face-centered cubic (austenite)

structure. The former are usually generated by the annealing, normalizing,
normalizing and tempering, or quenching and tempering processes. The latter
are generated by austempering, an isothermal reaction process resulting in a
product called austempered ductile iron (ADI).

Other heat treatments in common industrial use include stress-relief annealing and
selective surface heat treatment. Stress-relief annealing does not involve major micro-
structural transformations, whereas selective surface treatment (such as flame and
induction surface hardening) does involve microstructural transformations, but only in
selectively controlled parts of the casting.

The basic structural differences between the ferritic and austenitic classes are
explained in the Figure 2.9 and 2.10. Figure 2.9 shows a continuous cooling
transformation (CCT) diagram and cooling curves for furnace cooling, air-cooling,
and quenching.

It can be seen from Fig 2.9 that slow furnace cooling results in a ferritic matrix (the
desired product of annealing), whereas the cooling curve for air cooling, or
normalizing, results in a pearlitic matrix, and quenching produces a matrix
microstructure consisting mostly of martensite with some retained austenite.
Tempering softens the normalized and quenched conditions, resulting in
microstructures consisting of the matrix ferrite with small panicles of iron carbide (or
secondary graphite).

Figure 2.9: CCT diagram showing annealing, normalizing and quenching;

Ms stand martensite start, Mf for martensite finish.

Figure 2.10 shows an isothermal transformation (IT) diagram for a ductile cast
iron, together with a processing sequence depicting the production of ADI. In
this process, austenitizing is followed by rapid quenching (usually in molten
salt) to an intermediate temperature range for a time that allows the unique
metastable carbon-rich (≈2% C) austenitic matrix (γH) to evolve
simultaneously with nucleation and growth of a plate-like ferrite (α) or of
ferrite plus carbide, depending on the austempering temperature and time at
temperature.
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This austempering reaction progresses to a point at which the entire matrix has
been transformed to the metastable product (stage I in Fig 2.10), and then that
product is "frozen in" by cooling to room temperature before the true bainitic
ferrite plus carbide phases can appear (stage II in Fig 2.10).

In ductile cast irons the presence of 2 to 3 wt% Si prevents the rapid formation
of iron carbide (Fe3C). Hence the carbon rejected during ferrite formation in
the first stage of the reaction (stage I in Fig 2.10) enters the matrix austenite,
enriching it and stabilizing it thermally to prevent martensite formation upon
subsequent cooling. Thus the processing sequence in Figure 2.4 shows that the
austempering reaction is terminated before stage II begins and illustrates the
decrease in the martensite start (Ms) and martensite finish (Mf) temperatures
as γH forms in stage I. Typical austempering times range from 1 to 4 h
depending on alloy content and section size. If the part is austempered too
long, undesirable bainite will form. Unlike steel, bainite in cast iron
microstructures exhibits lower toughness and ductility.

Fig.2.10: IT diagram of a processing sequence for austempering.

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Heat Treatment

PRACTICAL TASK
1. Choose five different materials and carry out the experiment shown in the figure.

No of bends File test or

Material Density g/cm3 Hardness No.
till fracture scratch test
Aluminum

Mild steel

Tool steel

Cast iron

Copper

Brass

Practical Task
1. Take five square cross section bars (6 mm side) of mild steel. The length of
each bar is about 250mm.
2. Heat the four bars to 900° C and quench the first bar in water and second in oil.
Leave the third bar to cool in air and the fourth one to cool in a furnace
overnight.
3. Leave the fifth one (untreated specimen) as reference.
4. Record your result in the following table.

No of
Bar Quenching File test or Hardness Name of
bends till
No. Medium scratch test No. Process
fracture
1 Water

2 Oil

3 Air

4 Furnace
-
5 Untreated

5. Discuss the result obtained.

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