HEAT TREATMENT

LECTURE OUTLINE:
Define and purpose heat treatment.
Heat treatment theory
Stages of heat treatment.
Heat treatment process.

Define
- Heat treatment may be defined as:
An operation or combination of operations
involving

Heating and cooling of a metal/alloy in solid state

to obtain desirable

Purpose
- 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 (cold) working
as in wire drawing or cold rolling.

Purpose
- Improve ductility and toughness
- Increase , heat, wear and corrosion
resistance of materials.
- Improve electrical and magnetic
properties.
- Homogenise the structure to remove
coring .
- Spheroidize tiny particales, such as
those of FeC in steel, by diffusion.

Heat Treatment Theory

The various types of heat-treating
processes are similar because they all
involve the heating and cooling of metals;
they differ in the heating temperatures
and the cooling rates used and the final
results.
Ferrous metals (metals with iron) are
annealing, normalizing, hardening, and
tempering.
Nonferrous metals can be annealed, but
never tempered, normalized, or casehardened.

Stages of Heat Treatment

Stage lHeating the metal slowly to
ensure a uniform temperature.
Stage 2Soaking (holding) the
metal at a given temperature for a
given time and cooling the metal to
room temperature.
Stage 3Cooling the metal to room
temperature.

Stages of Heat
Treatment

Stages of Heat
Treatment
Soaking
- Internal structural changes take place.
- soaking period depends on the chemical
analysis of the metal and the mass of the
part.
Cooling Stage
- To cool the metal, you can place it in direct
contact with a COOLING MEDIUM composed
of a gas, liquid, solid, or combination of
these.

Stages of Heat
Treatment
Soaking Period
Table 1: Soaking period for Hardening, Annealing
and Normalizing Steel.

Heat Treatment Process.

1.
2.
3.
4.

Anneling
Normalizing
Hardening
Tempering

Heat Treatment

Heat Treatment

Heat Treatment

Heat Treatment Process

1. Annealing Process
- Annealing is the opposite of
hardening
- Relieve internal stresses, soften
them, make them more ductile, and
refine their grain structures.
- Cooling method depend on the
metal. For command use are furnace
cooled.

Heat Treatment Process

1. Annealing Process
- As the weld cools, internal stresses
occur along with hard spots and
brittleness. Welding can actually
weaken the metal. Annealing is just
one of the methods for correcting
these problems.

Heat Treatment Process

2. Normalizing
- Metal is heated to a higher temperature
and then removed from the furnace for
air cooling.
- Remove the internal stresses induced
by heat treating, welding, casting,
forging, forming, or machining.
- low-carbon steels do not require
normalizing (no harmful effects result).

Heat Treatment Process

3. Hardening
- Heating the steel to a set temperature
and then cooling (quenching) it rapidly by
plunging it into oil, water, or brine.
- Hardening increases the hardness and
strength of the steel, but makes it less
ductile.
- low-carbon steels do not require because
no harmful effects result.(No
transformation for martensitic structure)

Heat Treatment Process

3. Hardening
- In practice, 0.80 % C is required for
maximum hardness.
- When you increase the carbon content
beyond 0.80 per cent, there is no increase
in hardness, but there is an increase in
wear resistance.
- This increase in wear resistance is due to
the formation of a substance called hard
cementite.

Heat Treatment Process

4. Tempering
- To relieve the internal stresses and reduce
brittleness, you should temper the steel after it
is hardened.
- Temperature (below its hardening
temperature), holding length of time and
cooling (instill air).
- Below the low-critical point
- Strength, hardness and ductility depend on the
temperature (during the tempering process).

Heat Treatment Process

4. Tempering
- The minimum temperature time for
tempering should be 1 hour. If the part is
more than 1 inch thick, increase the time by
1 hour for each additional inch of thickness.
- Tempering relieves quenching stresses and
reduces hardness and brittleness.

Heat Treatment Process

4. Tempering
- Actually, the tensile strength of a hardened
steel may increase as the steel is tempered
up to a temperature of about 450F.
Above this temperature it starts to decrease.
Tempering increases softness, ductility,
malleability and impact resistance.

Thank you