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TITLE:- HEAT TREATMENT OF PLAIN CARBON STEEL

INTRODUCTION

Properties of steel depend on the microstructure by Heat Treatment of Steel can change its
microstructure in higher degree.

There for by Heat Treatment obtain the desirable properties of steel and make use of it to the
engineering applications. The common methods of heat treatment applied to steel are as follows.

1) Annealing

2) Normalizing

3) Quenching/Hardening

4) Tempering

THEORY

Annealing

Annealing involves heating the steel to a suitable temperature and slow cooling in the furnace as
a result of slow cooling ,steel acquires a equilibrium structure. it causes softening of steel with an
increase of ductility and relieving of residual stresses.

Microstructure of annealed steel depend on the type of steel ,hypo eutectoid steel consist ferrite
and pearlite. Eutectoid steel consist pearlite. Hyper eutectoid steel consist pearlite and cementite

Normalizing

The normalizing consist of heating the steel to a temperature 30-500C above A3 for Hypo
eutectoid steel or Acm for Hypereutectoid steel in order to obtain Austenite structure. Soaking
time determine as one hour per 25mm of section thickness. Due to faster cooling ,normalized
steel possess finer grain structure.Normalizing temperature for plain carbon steel as follows;
(1)0.2% Carbon at 9000C. (2) 0.4% Carbon at 8400C (3)0.6% Carbon at 8000C (4)0.8% Carbon
at 7800C. (5)1.0% Carbon at 8400C. (6)1.2% Carbon at 9000C.

Normalizing temperature for 0.5% C= 723+x+30 to 500C


The value x may be calculated as ,x(910-723)=0.3/0.8 or x=0.3x187/0.8=70

There for Normalizing temperature for 0.5% steel=723+70+30=8230C

Quenching/Hardening

Hardening consist of heating the steel 30-500C above A3 point (for Hypo eutectoid steel )or 30-
500C above A1 point (for Hypereutectoid steel). Soaking time determine as one hour per 25mm
of section thickness and obtain stable structure of Austenite. steel removed from the furnace
quickly and quenched in oil or water to a temperature well below Ms point due to rapid cooling,
austenite is directly transformed in to Martensite. The amount of martensite formed defense upon
the temperature of the quenching medium. Retained austenite is always present in quenched
steel, unless quenching bath is maintain below sub –zero temperatures. The retain austenite
decreases the hardness of steel.

Tempering

Tempering is a heat treatment process used to improve the toughness of hardened steel.tempering
consist of re-heating of hardened steel to a temperature below A1temperature and is held for a
period of time ,& then slowly cooled in air to room temperature.at tempering temperature carbon
atoms defuse out and form fine cementite and softer ferrite structure.thus the structure of
tempered steel consist of ferrite and fine cementite. the structure changed due to hardening and
tempering.

Classification of tempering processes

1) Low temperature tempering (150-2500C)

2) Medium temperature tempering (350-4500C)

3) High temperature tempering (500-6500C)

Materials and Apparatus

• Furnace
• Samples of medium Carbon
• Optical microscope
• Material needed in the sample preparation

Procedure

Five samples of medium carbon steel were heated in the furnace at 9000C for 30minutes.then
three samples from above was taken and quenched in water .One sample from the five samples
was cooled in still air.Other one was cooled in furnace after switching it off.One of the three
quenched samples was taken and re-heated at 2200C and other one was heated at 6000C for one
hour.Then the microstructure of above sample were examined by microscope and measured the
hardness.

Discussion

We can explain the result we have obtain by this practical using the heat treatment theory in
metallurgy.Heat treatment is defined as a combination of operation involving heating and
cooling of a solid metallic material to obtain desirable properties by changing is
microstructure .The factors should be concern in heat treatment are as follows.

1) Temperature used.
2) Time spent at temperature(soaking time).
3) Rate of heating to the required temperature.
4) Rate of cooling from the temperature.

First we take our sample which was kept in the switched off furnace after heating is in to
9000C,for 30 minutes.

Even according to the diagram we can see for plain carbon steel(we have used 0.44% Carbon
steel for this practical) full annealing is done above the A3 temperature .In this practical we have
heated all the samples at 9000C .That heat is desirable when we observe the graph the
temperature required for full annealing for plain carbon steel consist of 0.44% Carbon steel is
around 9000C.

By keeping in the furnace after being heated the specimen subject to an extremely slow cooling
rate ,due to the in contact with the atmosphere and the insulating system of the furnace. As a
result of that treatment grains grow largely forming big grains in the micro structure.The slow
cooling rate implements the grains to grow larger has enough time to form ferrite and pearlite
equal amounts. Even in the microstructure , we can observe the pearlite and ferrite large grains
are appeared.

The hardness of the specimen was measured as 2.5Rc.

That is quite low value for hardness .In here what happened was the amount of ferrite is higher in
the sample. Ferrite is low hardened phase and ductile phase. The reason for forming ferrite and
pearlite is the large grains due to the enough time and low cooling rate.

The second sample we have taken in to the consideration was the normalized sample.We
normalized steel to gain following properties from it. To refine the grain size and improve
mechanical properties.To improve the responds to hardening and to improve the strength of weld
structures.This process is done 30-500C above A3 or Acm temperature and cool it down under
normal environmental conditions.By doing so ,comparing to full annealing ,cooling rate is much
faster .So the grain size in normalize structure are some what smaller than full
annealing.Hardness also improved a certain amount in this techniques due to formation of
pearlite (large percentage than previous) and reduction of ferrite.The hardness in Rockwell scale
8.5.

Third sample is the quenched sample.Quenching is done by putting the heated steel in to a
quenching agent (say water).Sudden temperature decrement cause a distorted structured inmicro
level.That structure is called martensite.That is a distorted BCC structure or a Body Centered
Tetragonal structure.It has its own character of higher hardness due to presence of excess
Carbon.The microstructure visualized as spiky like oriented martensite is the structure no grains
presence in this kind hardness in Rockwell scale that is the very large value.That is 55.1.This is
the highest value all the time due to the non equilibrium phase of martensite.

Then the two tempered samples were taken. Tempering is done after a steel make work hardened
and gain the machinability again by removing internal stresses in side the material. First sample
that has been heated at 2000C has a similar microstructure to the quenched one. Because though
the work hardened sample heated up to 2000C If steel has stresses trapped inside it.Martensite is
not totally transform in to Fe3C in this conditions. So the structures some what similar to the
previous. But on the other hand the sample which was heated up to 6000C contained totally Fe3C
and α, getting rid of martensite from the structure. There fore no longer distorted structures are
present.There fore no material stresses. Now the sample has a decent amount of hardness as
well(29.4Rc).

Apart from changes in hardness we can see the variation in strength and toughness change with
the process.

When martensite forms the ductility decreases, toughness decreases. So the quenched sample has
the very little ductility. So the toughness is also very low.It cant with stand high impact, when it
comes to the strength ,when pearlite present in the structure,it gets more strength. There for
annealed and normalized samples have more strength. When it comes to the importance of heat
treatment of steels, we can simply say if we want to mend a dumb hard steel in to our desired
properties the only way to do so is heat treating,to it.That is the precise way of stressing the
important of heat treatment.

Conclusion

By doing this practical we were able to distinguish the different properties accompany with the
different heat treatment process.

References

Guide lines of the instructor

Lecture notes-steel, Heat treatment

Internet

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