HEAT TREATMENT

 is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to after their physical and mechanical
properties without changing the product shape.

Common Heat Treatments

 Softening is done to reduce strength or hardness, remove residual stresses, improves
toughness, restore ductility, refine grain size or change the electromagnetic properties of
steel.
 Hardening of steel is done to increase the strength and wear properties.
 Material Modification heat treatment is used to modify properties of materials in
addition to hardening and softening.

Benefits of Heat Treating

 Improving Workability and Machinability
 Improving Wear Resistance and Durability
 Improving Strength and Toughness
 Improving Magnetic Properties

Importance of Heat Treatment

 To relieve internal stresses,
 To soften the metal.
 To improve hardness of the metal surface.
 To improve machinability.
 To refine grain structure.
 To improve mechanical properties like tensile strength, ductility and shock
 resistance, etc.
 To improve electrical and magnetic properties.
 To increase the resistance to wear, tear, heat, and corrosion, etc.
 TERMINOLOGY OF HEAT TREATMENT

Annealing:
 process of heating and then cooling a material slowly to reduce internal stresses, induce
softness, improve ductility or toughness, or change electrical or magnetic properties.
 Annealing can also produce a uniform microstructure by eliminating previous cold work
effects or phase transformations.

Normalizing:
 type of annealing that involves heating a material above its transformation temperature
and then cooling it in air to produce a fine-grained microstructure with improved
mechanical properties.
 used for low-carbon steels to refine their grain size and homogenize their composition.

Quenching:
 process of rapidly cooling a material from a high temperature to create a hard martensitic
 high strength but low ductility.
 can be done using various media such as water, oil, air or salt baths
 often followed by tempering to reduce brittleness and increase toughness.

Tempering:
 A process of reheating a quenched material to a lower temperature below its
transformation temperature and then cooling it slowly to reduce internal stresses and
increase ductility and toughness.
 Can also modify other properties such as hardness, wear resistance and corrosion
resistance depending on the tempering temperature and time.
 Usually applied to steels that have been hardened by quenching to improve their
performance and reliability.

5. Austempering:
 types of quenching involve heating a material above its transformation temperature and
then quenching it into a salt bath at an intermediate temperature where austenite
transforms into bainite instead of martensite.
 can be used for some medium-carbon steels to obtain better combinations of mechanical
properties than conventional quenching and tempering methods.
6. Case Hardening:
 A process of creating a hard surface layer on a softer core by introducing additional
elements such as carbon, nitrogen or boron into the surface layer through diffusion or
deposition methods such as carburizing, nitriding, boriding, etc.
 can improve wear resistance, fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, etc. without
affecting the core properties,
 is often used for low-carbon steels that have poor surface hardness but good core
ductility.

MICROSTRUCTURE OF METAL, AND HEAT

TREATMENT
 is the fine structure of its constituents that is made visible by magnification over 25
times. It is a function of the carbon content and the transformations that occur during
the process of forming the steel.

Types of Steel Microstructure

Ferrite Microstructure
 When carbon atoms are only in a small fraction of interstices of the iron lattice, the steel
has a ferrite microstructure. This type is a body-centered cubic that is soft and ductile,
like pure iron.
Austenite Microstructure
 This microstructural phase has larger interstitial gaps that can contain up to 2% carbon at
2,100 °F (1,150 °C). Unlike ferrite, this has a face-centered cubic and the increase in
carbon content results in higher strength levels.
Martensite Microstructure
 Cooling austenite at a fast rate (above 86 °F) limits the amount of carbon atoms that
diffuse from the crystal structure, resulting in martensite formation.
Microstructure of High Carbon Steel
Generally, carbon steel grades depend on the weight percentage of carbon content present in
its structure. For high carbon steel, this value is between 0.6 and 1.25%, while its manganese
content is approximately 0.3 to 0.9%.

Microstructure of Mild Steel

Mild steel has a low carbon content ranging from 0.05 to 0.30%, which makes it malleable,
ductile, and cheap to produce. Because of these features, it is predominant in several
applications in industry. Although it inherently is of low strength, it can form alloys with other
elements such as chromium, nickel, and manganese to produce high-tensile steel

Stainless Steel Microstructure

The key attribute of the stainless-steel microstructure is the presence of a minimum of 10.5%
chromium. This results in corrosion-resistant steel (CRES) because the chromium combines
with oxygen to form a thin, stable passivation layer.

Heat Treatment
Heat treatment refers to heating or cooling steel using predetermined methods to achieve
desirable changes to its mechanical properties.

There are 4 major processes of heat treatment

 Annealing
 Hardening
 Normalizing
 Tempering

Annealing stages:

1. Stress relief (recovery) – a relatively low temperature process of reducing internal

mechanical stresses, caused by cold-work, casting or welding.
 2. During this process atoms move to more stable positions in the crystal lattice. Vacancies
and interstitial defects are eliminated, and some dislocations are annihilated.
3. Recovery heat treatment is used mainly for preventing stress-corrosion cracking and
decreasing distortions, caused by internal stresses.
4. Recrystallization – alteration of the grain structure of the metal.
5. Grain growth (over-annealing, secondary recrystallization) – growth of the new grains at
the expense of their neighbors, occurring at temperature, above the recrystallization
temperature.

The three stage of heat treatment

1. Heating- The first stage in which any alloy structure is heated to a specific temperature.
Slow and steady heating allows an alloy to be heated uniformly throughout.

2. Soaking- soaking is when every piece of the heated metal undergoes a complete
structural change. The length of time the metal will be wet will depend on its mass.

3. Cooling- The third stage is cooling, which involves either quenching or cooling the
structure of the soaked metal with still air. It depends on the metal and the cooling
medium, as some metals are quenched.

What is Hardening heat treatment?

used to increase the surface hardness of the metal. In a hardening furnace, the material is
heated to a temperature that changes its internal structure without melting it.

Direct hardening process

Is a process that involves heating up steel to a certain temperature before quickly cooling it off
in order to create a harder surface. This temperature is typically between 800°C and 950°C for
steel.

What is surface hardening?

is the heat or mechanical treatment of steel to increase the hardness of the outer surface
while leaving the core relatively soft. Surface-hardened steel is also valued for its low cost and
superior manufacturing flexibility.
Surface hardening process
involves rapidly heating the part's surface layer above the transformation range with a direct
high-temperature gas flame, followed by cooling it at a rate that results in the appropriate
hardening.

SOFTENING HEAT
TREATMENT
Heat treatment that uses diode lasers is the best way to soften hardened steel. The solidified
structure is softened in particular zones through heat exposure (also referred to as tempering),
followed by slow cooling.

ANNEALING

-is a heat treatment process that changes the physical and sometimes also the chemical
properties of a material to increase ductility and reduce the hardness to make it more
workable.
- The annealing process requires the material above its recrystallization temperature for a set
amount of time before cooling.

Advantages:
- how the process improves the
workability of a material, increasing toughness, reducing hardness and increasing the ductility
and machinability of a metal.

Disadvantages:
- it can be a time consuming procedure, depending on which materials are being annealed.
Materials with high temperature requirements can take a long time to cool sufficiently,
especially if they are being left to cool naturally inside an annealing furnace.

Why Is Normalizing Used?

- Normalizing is often performed because another process has intentionally or unintentionally
decreased ductility and increased hardness. This is important because it makes the metal more
formable, more machineable , and reduces residual stresses in the material that could lead to
unexpected failure.

Difference between the two

This difference means normalizing has a faster cooler rate than annealing. The faster cooler
rate can cause a material to have slightly less ductility and slightly higher hardness value than if
the material had been annealed. Normalizing is also generally less expensive than annealing
because it does not require additional furnace time during the cool down process.

Normalizing works in three stages:

1. Recovery Stage
This stage is where the furnace or other heating device is used to raise the temperature of the
material to such a point that the internal stresses are relieved.

2. Recrystallization Stage
During the recrystallization stage, the material is heated above its recrystallization
temperature, but below its melting temperature. This causes new grains without pre-existing
stresses to form.

3. Grain Growth Stage

During the grain growth, the new grains fully develop. This growth is controlled by allowing the
material to cool to room temperature via contact with air.
SPHEROIDIZATION
- Is a process which can improve powder flow characteristics and surface coatings by fine-
tuning the particle morphology of thermoplastics or meltable materials. Particle surfaces are
rapidly heated and then cooled, allowing the material to partially melt and form a smooth
surface.
Advantages of Spheroidizing

Some of the advantages of spheroidizing are mentioned below:

- Increases ductility of high carbon steel
- Spheroidite structure reduces energy needed for subsequent operations
- Machinability is increased.
- Industrial Applications.
Some of the industrial applications of spheroidizing are listed below:
- Machinable steel
- Rail road tracks
- Tyre cords
- Bridge cables

STRESS RELIEVING

- Is carried out on metal products in order to minimize residual stresses in the structure
thereby reducing the risk of dimensional changes during further manufacturing or final use of
the component.

The advantages of stress relief include:

- It relieves internal stresses without causing any color change.

- It returns the material to a strength level approximately equivalent to where it was prior to
forming.
- It increases mechanical strength of the material.
- Welded structures can be made tension free by stress relieving.

TEMPERING
- Is a heat treatment that improves the toughness of hard, brittle steels so that they can hold
up during processing.
-Tempering is best used on metal products that will be put under immense stress. It can be
used on bolts, washers, nuts, screws, and even knives.

What are the Benefits of Tempering?

- It changes the physical properties of the material that help in other manufacturing steps like
cold forging, welding, and machining.
- helps to relieve stress making the metal easier to weld or machine.
- Increases strength while making the material more flexible and ductile.
- Increases hardness and introduces wear-resistant properties to the surface or through the
entire metal.
- helps to overcome the brittleness and increase toughness.

The Process of Tempering

1. The process starts with choosing your grade and the type of iron-based alloy you want to
work on. After selecting the material, it is subjected to extreme heat.
2. After the metal is sufficiently heated, it is rapidly cooled. This act of quickly cooling the
metal is called quenching.
3. After cooling, the steel is very hard but lacks ductility, which is crucial in a wide range of
applications. This is why tempering is required.
 Tempering: Fundamental Steps
In Hardening
Involve heating the material to a specific temperature, holding it at that temperature for a
specified time, and then rapidly cooling it. This process changes the microstructure of the
metal, resulting in improved mechanical properties such as increased hardness and strength.

Basic steps involved in the hardening of steels:

Heating:
 The first step is to heat the steel to a temperature above its critical temperature (the
temperature at which the steel becomes fully austenitic).
Soaking:
 Once the steel reaches the desired temperature, it is held at that temperature for a
specified amount of time to ensure that the temperature is uniform throughout the
steel.
Quenching:
 The heated steel is then rapidly cooled or quenched in a quenching medium such as oil,
water, or air. This rapid cooling causes the steel to transform into a harder, more brittle
microstructure called martensite.
Tempering:
 To improve the toughness and reduce the brittleness of the hardened steel, it is then
tempered. Tempering involves heating the steel to a lower temperature than in the
hardening step and holding it at that temperature for a specific time. This process results
in a microstructure consisting of tempered martensite, which has improved toughness
and ductility compared to fully hardened martensite.
Heat Treatment Failure:
  refers to the inability of a material or component to perform its intended function due to
a failure of the heat treatment process. a critical process used to modify the properties
of a material, such as its hardness, strength, ductility, and toughness, by heating and
cooling it in a controlled manner.
 it is important to have a thorough understanding of the material properties, the intended
use of the component, and the heat treatment processes used. This includes proper
material selection, proper heat treatment process design and implementation,

CASE HARDENING
WHAT IS CASE HARDENING?
 Case hardening is also known as surface hardening because it only affects the surface
layer of the metal.
WHY IS CASE HARDENING DONE?
 To increase the fatigue strength of the metal by developing compressive stresses in the
outer layer.
 To improve the durability and usage economy of parts that are subject to sliding contact
with hard or abrasive materials.
 To enhance the weld-ability in certain materials that have poor weld-ability in their
original state.
WHAT ARE SOME APPLICATIONS OF CASE HARDENEDING METALS?
Gears:
Gears are subjected to high stresses and friction during operation. Case hardened gears have a
hard surface that can resist wear and abrasion while maintaining a soft core that can absorb
shocks and impacts.
Bearings:
Bearings are components that reduce friction between moving parts by providing smooth
rolling contact surfaces.
Camshafts:
Camshafts are shafts with cams attached to them that control the opening and closing of
valves in an engine.

1. CARBURIZING
is a heat treatment process that involves heating steel in the presence of a carbon-rich
material, such as charcoal or carbon monoxide, to increase its surface hardness and wear
resistance.
HOW DOES CARBURIZING WORK?
Carburizing works by diffusing carbon atoms into the surface layer of steel at high
temperatures (usually above 900°C). The carbon atoms either dissolve into the metal lattice or
form carbides with other elements in the steel. The depth and concentration of carbon
diffusion depend on the temperature, time, and gas composition of the carburizing process.
TYPES OF CARBURIZING?

Pack carburizing: is an old method that involves packing steel parts with charcoal or coke in
a sealed container and heating them for several hours. This method is slow, uneven, and
produces toxic gases.

Gas carburizing: This is a modern method that involves injecting carbon monoxide or
hydrocarbon gases into a furnace where steel parts are heated. This method is faster, more
uniform, and more controllable than pack carburizing.

Liquid carburizing: This is another modern method that involves immersing steel parts in
molten salts containing cyanide or carbonate ions. This method is similar to gas carburizing but
can achieve higher carbon concentrations and shorter times.

Vacuum carburizing: This is an advanced method that involves heating steel parts in a
vacuum chamber where carbon-bearing gases or plasmas are introduced. This method offers
precise control over gas composition, temperature, pressure, and time. It also reduces
oxidation and contamination of steel parts.

Plasma carburizing: This is an emerging method that involves exposing steel parts to ionized
gases or plasmas containing carbon atoms or ions. This method can achieve high
temperatures, low pressures, fast rates, and uniform treatments. It also improves corrosion
resistance and reduces environmental impact.

APPLICATION FOR CARBURIZING:

  Gears- Carburized gears have high surface hardness and wear resistance while
maintaining core toughness and ductility.
 Bearing- Carburized bearings have improved fatigue strength and impact resistance while
reducing friction and wear.
 Shafts- Carburized shafts have enhanced surface hardness and wear resistance while
preserving core toughness and elasticity.
 Tools- Carburized tools have increased cutting edge hardness, and durability while
retaining core strength and flexibility.

2. CARBONITRIDING

is a surface modification technique that can improve the hardness, wear resistance and
fatigue strength of metal parts.

HOW DOES CARBONITRIDING WORK?

is similar to carburizing, which is a process of adding carbon to the surface of a metal to
increase its hardness. However, carbonitriding also adds nitrogen to the metal through
ammonia gas. This reduces the risk of distortion and cracking during quenching. The case
depth ranges from 0.1 mm to 0.75 mm, and the surface hardness can reach up to 62 HRC.

BENEFITS OF CARBONITRIDING
 Can increase the wear resistance and fatigue strength of low carbon steels that are
otherwise difficult to harden.
 Can produce a harder case than carburizing due to the presence of nitrogen.
 Can reduce distortion and cracking during quenching due to lower quenching speeds and
milder quenching media.
 Can be applied to mass-produced small components with low cost and high efficiency.

APPLICATIONS OF CARBONITRIDING

Automotive industry:
 Can improve the performance and lifespan of engine components such as gears, shafts,
pistons, rollers, bearings and levers.
Machine tool industry:
 Can enhance the wear resistance and toughness of cutting tools such as drills, taps, dies
and milling cutters.
Agricultural industry:
 Can increase the reliability and service life of farm equipment such as plows, harrows,
cultivators, and tractors.

3. NITRIDING
Nitriding is a heat-treating process that diffuses nitrogen into the surface of a metal to
create a case-hardened surface. These processes are most used on low-alloy steels.
BENEFITS OF NITRIDING:
 High surface hardness
 Low distortion
 High temperature resistance
 Low processing temperature
 Environmentally friendly

ADVANTAGES OF NITRIDING OVER OTHER CASE-HARDENING PROCESS

ARE:
 Precise control of chemical potential of nitrogen in the nitriding atmosphere by
controlling gas flow rate of nitrogen and oxygen (gas nitriding) or voltage and current
(plasma nitriding).
 All-round nitriding effect (can be a disadvantage in some cases compared with plasma
nitriding).
 Large batch sizes possible
 With modern computer control of the atmosphere or plasma parameters, the nitriding
results can be closely controlled.
 Relatively low equipment cost - especially compared with plasma.
 Quick processing time

THE DISADVANTAGES OF NITRIDING ARE:

Ammonia:
 harmful when inhaled at high concentration.
Salt baths for salt-nitridation:
 they are corrosive, toxic, flammable, and pose environmental hazards.
Plasma-nitridation:
 requires high-voltage power supply

TYPES OF NITRIDINGS

Three main methods of nitriding:

Gas nitriding:
the metal is heated to a suitable temperature (500°C to 575°C for steel) and
held in contact with a nitrogen-rich gas, usually ammonia (NH3).
Salt bath nitriding:
the metal is immersed in a molten salt bath containing nitrogen-donating
salts such as cyanide salts.
Plasma nitriding (also known as ion nitriding):
the metal is placed in a vacuum chamber and exposed to a glow discharge plasma of nitrogen
gas at low pressure.

4. INDUCTION HARDENING
 Induction hardening is a heat treatment process that uses electromagnetic induction to
heat the surface layer of a metal part and then quench it rapidly. The result is a hard and
wear-resistant surface layer with a tough and ductile core.

HOW DOES INDUCTION HARDENING WORK?

  Induction hardening works by placing a metal part inside a coil of copper wire that carries
an alternating electric current.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF INDUCTION HARDENING?

 Fast and precise:
 Energy-efficient:
 Environmentally friendly:
 Compatible with different metals:
APPLICATIONS OF INDUCTION HARDENING:
Gears:
 can improve the wear resistance and load-bearing capacity of gears by creating a
hardened case on their teeth while maintaining a tough core.
Shafts:
 can increase the torsional strength and fatigue life of shafts by forming a hardened layer
on their surfaces while preserving their ductility.
Springs:
 can enhance the elasticity and durability of springs by creating a hardened zone on their
ends while keeping their flexibility.
Tools:
 can improve the cutting performance and service life of tools by creating a hardened
edge on their blades while maintaining their toughness.

Heat Treatment Equipment