Fundamentals of Manufacturing Processes

Heat Treatment: Fundamentals

DHEERENDRA KUMAR DWIVEDI

MECHANICAL & INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

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 Heat Treatment Process
Desirable mechanical
properties such as
Better machinability
Improved ductility
Heating
To obtain Homogeneous structure
+
Soaking (holding)
+
Controlled cooling Desirable conditions such
as relieving internal
stresses

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 Purpose of heat treatment
Causes 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 (cold) working as in wire drawing or cold rolling
Improve ductility and toughness
Increase heat, wear and corrosion resistance of materials
Improve electrical and magnetic properties
Homogenize the structure to remove coring
Spheroidize tiny particles such as those of Fe3C in steel, by diffusion.

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 Fundamental diagrams
1. Iron carbon diagram
2. Time temperature transformation (TTT) diagram
3. Continuous cooling transformation (CCT) diagram

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Iron carbon (Fe C) diagram

Heat treatment of steels

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 Time temperature transformation
diagram
Or
Isothermal transformation diagram
or
Isotemperature diagram

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Continuous cooling transformation (CCT)
diagram

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 Processes
1. Annealing
2. Normalizing
3. Tempering
4. Hardening
5. Carburizing

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 1. Annealing

Annealing is performed to reduce hardness,

improve machinability, facilitate cold working
and produce a desired microstructure.
Types:
Full annealing
Critical annealing
Process annealing
Sphereodizing
Stress relieving

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 2. Normalizing
Normalizing of steel is carried out by
heating above UCT (upper critical
temperature), soaking there for some time
and then cooling in air to room
temperature.

Aims:
To improve hardness and strength
To improve machinability
To modify the grain structure
Provide more consistent response
when hardening or case hardening

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 3. Tempering
Tempering carried out by heating the steel below lower
critical temperature, held for a period and then slowly cooled
in air to room temperature.

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 Austempering and Martempering

These processes have been developed to avoid

residual stresses generated during quenching.
In both these processes Austenized steel is
quenched above Ms (say to a temperature T1) for
homogenization of temperature across the sample.
In Martempering the steel is then quenched and
the entire sample transforms simultaneously to
martensite. This is followed by tempering.
In Austempering instead of quenching the
sample, it is held at T1 for it to transform to
bainite.

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 4. Hardening
The sample is heated above A3 | Acm to cause
Austenization. The sample is then quenched at a
cooling rate higher than the critical cooling rate (i.e. 910C
Har e nin
g Acm
den Hard
ing
to avoid the nose of the CCT diagram). A3

The quenching process produces residual strains 723C Full Annealing

A1
(thermal, phase transformation).
The transformation to Martensite is usually not
T
complete and the sample will have some retained
Austenite. Wt% C

The Martensite produced is hard and brittle and 0.8 %

tempering operation usually follows hardening.

This gives a good combination of strength and
toughness
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Thank You

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