Heat Treatment
Heat Treatment
Heat Treatment
We have noted that how TTT and CCT diagrams can help us design heat treatments to
design the microstructure of steels and hence engineer the properties. In some cases a
gradation in properties may be desired (usually from the surface to the interior- a hard
surface with a ductile/tough interior/bulk).
In general three kinds of treatments are: (i) Thermal (heat treatment), (ii) Mechanical
(working), (iii) Chemical (alteration of composition). A combination of these treatments are
also possible (e.g. thermo-mechanical treatments, thermo-chemical treatments).
The treatment may affect the whole sample or only the surface.
A typical industrial treatment cycle may be complicated with many steps (i.e. a combination
of the simple steps which are outlined in the chapter).
Surface
An overview of important heat treatments
A broad classification of heat treatments possible are given below. Many more specialized
treatments or combinations of these are possible.
HEAT TREATMENT
BULK SURFACE
Ful
l An
nea
910 C
li ng t i on Acm
No l i za
r ma ma
liza r
A3 tion No
Wt% C
0.8 %
Full Annealing
The purpose of this heat treatment is to obtain a material with high ductility. A microstructure
with coarse pearlite (i.e. pearlite having high interlamellar spacing) is endowed with such
properties.
The range of temperatures used is given in the figure below.
The steel is heated above A3 (for hypo-eutectoid steels) & A1 (for hyper-eutectoid steels) (hold) then the
steel is furnace cooled to obtain Coarse Pearlite.
Coarse Pearlite has low () Hardness but high () Ductility.
For hyper-eutectoid steels the heating is not done above Acm to avoid a continuous network of
proeutectoid cementite along prior Austenite grain boundaries (presence of cementite along grain boundaries
provides easy path for crack propagation).
Recrystallization Annealing
During any cold working operation (say cold rolling), the material becomes harder (due to
work hardening), but loses its ductility. This implies that to continue deformation the material
needs to be recrystallized (wherein strain free grains replace the cold worked grains).
Hence, recrystallization annealing is used as an intermediate step in (cold) deformation
processing.
Heat
To belowthis
achieve A1 theSufficient
sample is time below
heated Recrystallization
A1 and held there for sufficient time for
recrystallization to be completed.
Stress Relief Annealing
Due to various processes like quenching (differential cooling of surface and interior),
machining, phase transformations (like martensitic transformation), welding, etc. the residual
stresses develop in the sample. Residual stress can lead to undesirable effects like warpage of
the component.
The annealing is carried out just below A1 , wherein recovery* processes are active
(Annihilation of dislocations, polygonization).
Differential cooling
Martensite formation
Welding
This is a very specific heat treatment given to high carbon steel requiring extensive
machining prior to final hardening & tempering. The main purpose of the treatment is to
increase the ductility of the sample.
Like stress relief annealing the treatment is done just below A 1.
Long time heating leads cementite plates to form cementite spheroids. The driving force for
this (microstructural) transformation is the reduction in interfacial energy.
NORMALIZING
The sample is heat above A3 | Acm to complete Austenization. The sample is then air cooled to
obtain Fine pearlite. Fine pearlite has a reasonably good hardness and ductility.
In hypo-eutectoid steels normalizing is done 50C above the annealing temperature.
In hyper-eutectoid steels normalizing done above Acm due to faster cooling cementite does
not form a continuous film along GB.
The list of uses of normalizing are listed below.
A sample with martensitic microstructure is hard but brittle. Hence after quenching the
sample (or component) is tempered. Maternsite being a metastable phase decomposes to
ferrite and cementite on heating (providing thermal activation).
Tempering is carried out just below the eutectoid temperature (heat wait slow cool).
In reality the microstructural changes which take place during tempering are very complex.
The time temperature cycle for tempering is chosen so as to optimize strength and
toughness. E.g. tool steel has a as quenched hardness of Rc65, which is tempered to get a
hardness of Rc45-55.
MARTEMPERING & AUSTEMPERING
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 T 1 for it to transform to
bainite.
800
Eutectoid temperature
723 Austenite
Pearlite
600
+ Fe3C
500 Pearlite + Bainite
T
400 Bainite
300 T1
Ms
200 Austempering
Mf
100
Martempering Martensite