HEAT TREATMENT OF METALS AND
ALLOYS
INTRODUCTION
Any solid metal normally has a definite cell
(unit cell) shape and size at a certain energy
state, but in some metals the shape as well as
the size change from one energy state to
another.
The energy state is usually changed by
adding or taking away heat. Such a process is
called heat treatment.
INTRODUCTION CON/D.
It may therefore be defined as
an operation or combination of
operations involving the heating
and cooling of metals or alloys
in the solid state to produce
certain desired properties.
INTRODUCTION CON/D.
All heat treatment processes may be
considered to consist of three main
parts:
1. The heating of the metal to the predetermined
temperature.
2. The soaking of the metal at that temperature
until the structure becomes uniform
throughout the mass.
3. The cooling of the metal at some
predetermined rate to cause the formation of
desirable structures within the metal/alloy for
the desired purpose.
PURPOSES OF HEAT TREATMENT
Heat treatment operations serve one or
more of the following purposes:
1. Improve machinability.
2. Relieve internal stresses.
3. Improve mechanical properties such as
ductility, strength, hardness, toughness,
etc.
PURPOSES OF HEAT TREATMENT CON/D.
4. Change the grain size.
5. Increase resistance to heat and
corrosion.
6. Modify electrical and magnetic
properties.
7. Change the chemical composition.
8. Remove gases.
METHODS OF HEAT TREATMENT CON/D.
The purposes of heat treatment may be
served by one or more of the following
processes of heat treatment:
1. Annealing.
2. Normalizing.
3. Hardening.
METHODS OF HEAT TREATMENT CON/D.
4. Tempering.
5. Case: Carburizing, Cyaniding, and
Nitriding.
6. Surface hardening: Induction
hardening, Flame hardening.
7. Diffusion coatings.
ANNEALING
Annealing is one of the most important
widely used operations in the heat treatment
of steel.
The purpose of annealing is to obtain one
or more of the following effects:
1. Soften the steel.
2. Improve machinability.
3. Increase or restore ductility and toughness.
ANNEALING CON/D.
4. Relieve internal stresses.
5. Reduce or eliminate
structural inhomogeneity.
6. Refine grain size.
7. Prepare steel for subsequent
heat treatment.
Types of Annealing
1. Full annealing- wipes out all traces of previous
structure by complete phase recrystallisation.
Used to recover cold work and relax stresses
within a metal.
Annealing typically results in a soft, ductile
metal.
When an annealed part is allowed to cool in
the furnace, it is called a full anneal heat
treatment.
Medium and high carbon steels, require full annealing
for recrystallisation.
FULL ANNEALING CON/D.
Full annealing consists of:
1. Heating the steel slightly to
above the As temperature
2. Holding it at this temperature
for a considerable period. (Not less
than 3 to 4 minutes for each millimeter of
section of the largest pieces being heat treated).
3. Slowly cooling.
Full- Annealing -Temperature range
Heat treatment processes
Heat treatment of plain carbon steel
Types of Annealing con/d.
2. PROCESS ANNEALING
When steel is cold-worked the hardness
and elastic particularly considerably
increase, while the ductility remarkably
suffers and the steel becomes unsuitable
for further plastic deformation.
The ductility of steel may then be
restored by so-called recrystallisation or
process annealing.
Furthermore, the effect of process annealing
is to relieve internal stresses resulting from any
previous heat treatment.
Process annealing consists in heating the
steel to a temperature below or close to Ac1
point usually in the range of 500 to 700 degrees
holding at this temperature for a prolonged
period and slow cooling.
This causes the grains of steel, broken
up or distorted in the process of
deformation, to come back into their
normal state (by recrystallisation).
Process of recrystallisation annealing is
frequently applied in the production of
cold rolled steel which, in deep drawing,
and in wire drawing operations is an
intermediate process with the aim of
increasing the plasticity of the steel.
It should be pointed out that this
process is applied to low carbon steels
only.
In process annealing, new equiaxial
gradually grows from the fragments of the
original elongated grains, forming centers,
or nuclei.
These new grains become equiaxial. It
must, therefore, be remembered that this
process does not produce any new
structure by phase transformations but
produces only new crystals of the same
structure.
Process annealing
3. SPHEROIDISE ANNEALING
The process of producing a structure of
globular pearlite is known as spheroidising
or spheroidise annealing.
The machinability of high carbon tool steels
is at its best condition when the structure is
composed of grained (or globular) pearlite.
All alloy steels, including those of the
carbide class, as well as ball bearing steels,
should have a structure of globular pearlite in
the deliverable state.
This is performed by heating the steel
slightly above the critical point Ac1 (line
GS),(730 to 770 degrees) with subsequent
holding at this temperature followed by
slow cooling in the furnace at the rate of
25 to 30 degrees per hour to a temperature
of 550 to 600 degrees.
The subsequent cooling may be
conducted in still air at room temperature.
This process transforms lamellar
pearlite into globular type.
The range of heating temperatures, at
which globular pearlite is formed, is
very narrow in steels with near-eutectoid
compositions.
The optimum annealing temperature is
750 degree for eutectoid steels and 770
degrees for hypereutectoid steel the
machinability of hypereutectoid, however,
cannot be improved by this process, but
by full annealing or by normalizing.
Spheroidising
4.HOMOGENISING
Homogenizing or diffusion annealing is
applied to steel ingots (both carbon and alloy
steel) and heavy complex casting for
eliminating, chemical inhomogeneity within
the separate crystals by diffusion.
This is carried out at temperatures from
1,100 to 1,200 degrees (the optimum
temperature is 1,150 degrees) at which
diffusion proceeds quite easily and to some
extent, equalizes the composition of steels.
After the required heating temperature is
achieved, the metal is held for a very short
period. Holding is followed by cooling with the
furnace for 6 to 8 hours to 800 to 850 degrees
and then further cooling in air.
Homogenizing naturally causes a very rapid
growth (for heating to a very high temperature)
of austenitic grains.
After homogenizing, therefore, the steel
ingots necessarily undergo an ordinary
phases (full) annealing for the fine-grain
structure to be formed.
5. ISOTHERMAL ANNEALING
Isothermal annealing is carried out as for
ordinary annealing to form austenite. It is then
cooled comparatively rapidly in air or by a blast in
a furnace to a temperature of 50 to 100 degrees
below point Ar1 line PSK) lower critical) i.e., to
600 to 700 degrees.
The steel is held isothermally at this
temperature (at constant temperature) during a
certain period of time to provide for complete
decomposition to pearlite and hence the name
isothermal annealing.
This is followed by comparatively rapid
cooling.
A homogeneous structure of the metal
is obtained and the results of annealing
are more stable. The main advantage of
isothermal annealing is that it reduces the
time required for heat treatment of the
steel.
This is especially reduction in hardness.
6. NORMALIZING
When steel is cold-worked the crystal
structure is distorted, and the metal may be
brittle and unreliable.
The internal structure of hot-worked forged
part may also be distorted owing to being
worked at a very low temperature.
It can also be seen that a variable finishing
temperature will result in a variable structure
for forgings of the same carbon content.
Normalizing is, therefore, used particularly
for the following purposes:
1. To eliminate coarse-grained structure.
2. To remove internal stresses that may have
been caused by working.
3. To improve the mechanical properties of
the steel.
In addition to all these purposes, it may be
used to increase the strength of medium
carbon steels to a certain extent (in
comparison with annealed steels), to improve
the machinability of low carbon steels, to
improve the structure of welds, etc.
Normalizing is frequently applied as a final
heat treatment for items which are to operate
at relatively high stresses.
The process of normalizing consists of:
1. Heating the metal to temperatures
within the normalizing range which is
usually 40 to 50 degrees above Ac3.
2. Holding at this temperature for a short
time (about 15 minutes).
3. Cooling in air.
Produces a homogeneous structure
consisting of ferrite and pearlite for
hypoeutectoid steel, only pearlite for
eutectoid steel and pearlite and cementite for
hypereutectoid steels.
The normalized structure of alloy steels
consists of ferrite and sorbite.
Normalized steels have a higher yield
points, tensile strength and impact strength
then if they were annealed, but ductility and
machinability obtained by normalizing will be
somewhat lower.
Normalizing temperatures for plain carbon steels
