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Heat Treatment PDF
Heat Treatment PDF
Zinc 50
Tin 25
Lead 25
In the primary recrystallization stage the deformed
lattice is completely replaced by a new unstrained
one by means of a nucleation and growth process, in
which practically stress free grains grow from nuclei
formed in the deformed matrix.
Grain refinement
minimum hardness
maximum ductility
maximum machinability
maximum softness
Commonly used for alloy steels to soften the
steel
In isothermal annealing, steel austenitised at
a temp 20-40oC above Ac3, is cooled quickly
to the temp of isothermal holding( which is
below A1 temp in the pearlitic range), held
there for the required time so that complete
transformation of austenite takes place and
then normally cooled in air
The closer the temp of isothermal holding is to A1,
coarser is the pearlite, softer is the steel, but
longer is the time of isothermal transformation.
ADVANTAGES OF ISOTHERMAL
ANNEALING:
As cooling can be done in air after the
transformation is complete, total time of
heat treatment and the cost of annealing is
less.
The productivity of the furnace is high
The microstructure obtained is more uniform
and thus better control over hardness can be
obtained as transformation takes place at a
constant temperature.
Improved machinability with good surface
finish
Reduced warping in subsequent hardening
processes.
Stress-Relief Annealing is useful in removing
residual stresses due to heavy machining or
other cold-working processes.
It is usually carried out at temperatures below
the LCT, which is usually selected around
1000oF.
The main aims of stress-relief annealing are:
To relieve the internal stresses, and thus, allow
higher external loads to be applied
Increase fatigue life and prevent intercrystalline
corrosion.
To reduce chance of warpage or cracking, or risk
of distortion in cracking
To increase impact resistance and lower
susceptibility to brittle fracture
No change of dimensions in service life
NORMALIZING
The normalizing of steel is carried out by heating
above the UCT (Upper Critical Temperature) to
single phase austenitic region to get
homogeneous austenite, soaking there for some
time and then cooling it in air to room
temperature.
Acm + (30-50oC)
During normalising we use grain refinement
which is associated with allotropic
transformation upon heating
Parts that require maximum toughness and
those subjected to impact are often
normalized.
When large cross sections are normalized,
they are also tempered to further reduce
stress and more closely control mechanical
properties.
The microstructure obtained by normalizing
depends on the composition of the castings
(which dictates its hardenability) and the
cooling rate.
Figure below shows the normalizing temperatures
for hypoeutectoid and hypereutectoid steels
To produce a harder and stronger steel than
full annealing
To improve machinability
To modify and/or refine the grain structure
To obtain a relatively good ductility without
reducing the hardness and strength
Improve dimensional stability
Produce a homogeneous microstructure
Reduce banding
Provide a more consistent response when
hardening or case hardening
EFFECT OF SOAKING TIME ON THE
MICROSTRUCTURE:
MICROSTRUCTURE AT THE STRIP SURFACE
NORMALIZED AT 860oC
MICROSTRUCTURE AT THE STRIP SURFACE
NORMALIZED AT 900oC
MICROSTRUCTURE AT THE STRIP SURFACE
NORMALIZED AT 940oC
MICROSTRUCTURE AT THE STRIP SURFACE
NORMALIZED AT 960oC
COMPARISON OF ANNEALING AND
NORMALIZING
The metal is heated to a higher temperature and then
removed from the furnace for air cooling in normalizing
rather than furnace cooling.
In normalizing, the cooling rate is slower than that of a
quench-and-temper operation but faster than that used in
annealing.
As a result of this intermediate cooling rate, the parts will
possess a hardness and strength somewhat greater than if
annealed.
Fully annealed parts are uniform in softness (and
machinability) throughout the entire part; since the entire
part is exposed to the controlled furnace cooling. In the case
of the normalized part, depending on the part geometry, the
cooling is non-uniform resulting in non-uniform material
properties across the part.
Internal stresses are more in normalizing as compared to
annealing.
Grain size obtained in normalizing is finer than in annealing.
Normalizing is a cheaper and less time-consuming process.
The slower cooling of annealing results in higher temperature
transformation to ferrite and pearlite and coarser
microstructures than does normalizing.
Annealing and normalizing do not present a significant
difference on the ductility of low carbon steels. As the
carbon content increases, annealing maintains the %
elongation around 20%. On the other hand, the ductility of
the normalized high carbon steels drop to 1 to 2 % level.
The tensile strength and the yield point of the
normalized steels are higher than the annealed
steels.
Normalizing and annealing do not show a
significant difference on the tensile strength
and yield point of the low carbon steels.
However, normalized high carbon steels
present much higher tensile strength and yield
point than those that are annealed. This can
be illustrated from the figures.
Low and medium carbon steels can maintain similar
hardness levels when normalized or annealed. However,
when high carbon steels are normalized they maintain
higher levels of hardness than those that are annealed.
ADVANTAGES OF NORMALIZING OVER
ANNEALING
Better mechanical properties
Lesser time-consuming
Lower cost of fuel and operation
2. Tempering:
The second stage of tempering eliminates the
retained austenite in most steels.
In high alloy steels, multiple tempering is able
to eliminate the retained austenite during
cooling from the tempering temperature.
The main defects produced during hardening
are:
1. Mechanical properties not up to specifications:
The common defect in hardened tools, or
component is too low a hardness.
One or more of the followings could be the
cause of such a defect.
Insufficient fast cooling due to overheated or
even polluted coolant could be responsible for a
defect.
The presence of scale, or oil, etc. on the surface
also decreases the cooling rate.
Circulation of coolant, or agitation of component
may also result in such defect.
A shorter austenitising time can also cause such a
defect. Lower austenitising temperature can also
result in such a defect.
Decarburisation can also result in low surface
hardness. If too high temperature had been used,
which produces larger amount of retained austenite
can result in low surface hardness.
2. Soft Spots:
Soft areas on the hardened surface are called soft
spots.
The adhering scale, or decarburisation of some areas
or prolonged vapour-blanket stage due to overheated
coolant or insufficient agitation or circulation of
coolant, or rough surface could cause presence of
soft spots surface.
3. Quench Cracks:
Quench cracks form as a result of internal stresses
developed of tensile nature exceeding the tensile strength
of the steel.
Steel with lower Ms temperature due to higher contents of
alloying elements are more prone to quench cracks. Higher
carbon also results in more brittle martensite.
Quench cracks can form if there is more time lag between
the process of quenching and tempering.
Overheating of steel or a wrong coolant which gave much
faster rate of cooling, or there is faulty design of the
component with sharp corners and sharp transition
between sections, or a wrong steel has been chosen.
Presence of large amounts of retained austenite causes
grinding cracks.
The other defects could be distortion and warpage; change
in dimensions; oxidation and decarburisation
Martensite is a very strong phase, but it is
normally very brittle so it is necessary to modify
the mechanical properties by heat, treatment in
the range 150700C.
Essentially, martensite is a highly Supersaturated
solid solution of carbon in iron which, during
tempering, rejects carbon in the form of finely
divided carbide phases.
The end result of tempering is a fine dispersion
of carbides in an -iron matrix which often bears
little structural similarity to the original as-
quenched martensite.
In the as-quenched martensite structure,the
laths or plates are heavily dislocated to an
extent that individual dislocations are very
difficult to observe in thin-foil electron
micrographs.
A typical dislocation density for a 0.2 wt%
carbon steel is between 0.3 and 1.0 x 1012
cm cm-3. As the carbon content rises above
about 0.3 wt%, fine twins about 510 nm
wide are also observed.
Often carbide particles, usually rods or small
plates, are observed (Fig. 9.1).
These occur in the first-formed martensite,
i.e. the martensite formed near Ms, which
has the opportunity of tempering during the
remainder of the quench.
This phenomenon, which is referred to as
aut-tempering, is clearly more likely to
occur in steels with a high Ms.
On reheating as-quenched martensite, the
tempering takes place in four distinct but
overlapping stages:
Stage 1, up to 250C precipitation of E-iron
carbide; partial loss of tetragonality in
martensite.
Stage 2, between 200 and 300C
decomposition of retained austenite .
Stage 3, between 200 and 350C replacement
of &iron carbide by cementite; martensite loses
tetragonality.
Stage 4, above 350C cementite coarsens and
spheroidizes; recrystallization of ferrite.
Martensite formed in medium and high carbon
steels (0.31.5 wt% C) is not stable at room
temperature because interstitial carbon atoms
can diffuse in the tetragonal martensite lattice
at this temperature.
This instability increases between room
temperature and 250C, when -iron carbide
precipitates in the martensite (Fig. 9.2).
This carbide has a close-packed hexagonal
structure, and precipitates as narrow laths or
rodlets on cube planes of the matrix with a well-
defined
orientation relationship .
At the end of stage 1 the martensite still possesses a
tetragonality, indicating a carbon content of around
0.25 wt%.
It follows that steels with lower carbon contents are
unlikely to precipitate -carhide.
This stage of tempering possess an activation energy of
between 60 and 80 kJ mo1, which is in the right range for
diffusion of carbon in martensite. The activation energy
has been shown to increase linearly with the carbon
concentration between 0.2 and 1.5 wt% C.
This would be expected as increasing the carbon
concentration also increases the occupancy of the
preferred
interstitial sites, i.e. the octahedral interstices at the mid-
points of cell edges, and centres of cell faces, thus
reducing the mobility of C atoms.
During stage 2. austenite retained during
quenching is decomposed usually in the
temperature range 230-300C.
In martensitiC plain carbon steels below 0.5
carbon. the retained austenite is often below
2%, rising to around 6 % at 0.8 wt C and over 30
% at 1.25 wt C.
The little available evidence suggests that in the
range 230-300C, retained austenite decomposes
to bainitic ferrte and cementite, but no
detailed comparison between this phase and
lower bainite has yet been made.
During the third stage of tempering, cementite
flrst appears in the microstructure as a
Widmanstatten distribution of plates which have
a well-defined orientation relationship with the
matrix which has now lost its tetragonality and
become ferrite.
This reaction commences as low as 100C and is
fully developed at 300C, with particles up to
200 nm long and 15 nm in thickness.
Similar structures are often observed in lower
carbon steels as quenched, as a result of the
formation of Fe3C during the quench.
During tempering, the most likely sites for the
nucleation of the cementite are the -iron
carbide irterfaces with the matrix (Fig 9.2) and
as the Fe3C particles grow, the -iron carbide
particles gradually
disappear.
The twins occurring in the higher carbon
martensites are also site for the nucleation and
growth of cementite which tends to grow along
the twin boundaries forming colonies of similarly
oriented lath shaped particles (Fig. 9.3) which
can be readily ditinguished from the normal
Widmanstatten habit.
A third site for the nucleation of cementite is
the grain boundary regions (Fig, 9.4)of both the
interlath boundaries of martensite and
the original austenite grain b0unjaries.
The cementite can form as very thin films
which are difficult to detect but which gradually
sp1eroidise to give rise to welI-defined particles
of Fe3C in the grain boundary regions.
There is some evidence to show that these.
boundary cementite films can adversely affect
ductility. However it can be modified by
addition of alloying elements.
During the third stage of tempering , the
tetragonality of thc matrix disappears and it
is then, essentially, ferrite, not
supersaturated with
respect to carbon.
Subsequent changes in the morpriology of
cementite particles occur by process where
the smaller particles dissolve in the matrix
providing carbon for the selective growth of
the larger particles.
During the third stage of tempering , the
tetragonality of thc matrix disappears and it
is then, essentially, ferrite, not
supersaturated with
respect to carbon.
Subsequent changes in the morpriology of
cementite particles occur by process where
the smaller particles dissolve in the matrix
providing carbon for the selective growth of
the larger particles.
It is useful to define a fourth stage of tempering in
which the cementite particles undergo a coarsening
process and essentially lose their crystallographic
morphology, becoming spheroidized.
It commences between 300 and 400C, while
spheroidizatiun takes place increasingly up to
700C.
At the higher end of this range of tempera.
ture the martensite lath boundaries are replaced by
more equi-axid frrite grain boundaries by a process
which is best described as recrystallization.
The final result is an equi-axed array of ferrite
grains with coarse spheroidized particles of Fe3C
(Fig. 9.5), partly, but not exclusively, by the grain
boundaries.
The spherodisation of the Fe3C is encouraged by the
resulting decrease in surface energy.
The particles which preferentially grew and spheroidize
are located mainly at interlath boundaries and prior
austenite boundaries, although some particles remain in
the matrix.
The boundary sites are preferred because of the greater
ease of diffusion in these regions. Also, the growth of
cementite into ferrite is associated with a decrease in
density so vacancies are required to accommodate the
growing cementite.
Vacancies will diffuse away from cementite particles which
are redissolving in the ferrite and towards cementite
particles which are growing, so that the rate controlling
process is likely to be the diffusion of vacancies.
The original martensite lath boundaries remain stable up
to about 600C, but in the range 350600C. there is
considerable rearrangement of the dislocations within the
laths and at those lath boundaries which are essentially
low angle boundaries.
This leads to a marked reduction in the dislocation density
and to lath-shaped ferritic grains closely related to the
packets of similarly oriented laths in the original
martensite.
This process, which is essentially one of recovery, is
replaced between 600 and 700C by recrystallization
which results in the formation of equi-axed ferrite grains
with spheroidal Fe3C particles in the boundaries and
within the grains.
This process occurs most readily in carbon
steels.
At higher carbon content, the increased
density of cementite particles is much more
effective in pinning the ferrite boundaries, so
recrystallisation is much more sluggish.
The final process is the continued coarsening of
the cementite particles and gradual ferrite grain
growth.
Firstly, the hardness of the as-quenched martensite is
largely influenced by the carbon content, as is the
morphology of the martensite laths which have a up
to 0.3 wt% C, changing at higher carbon contents.
The Ms temperature is reduced as the carbon content
increases, arid thus the probability of the occurrence
of auto-tempering is less.
During fast quenching in alloys with less than 0.2 wt
% C, the majority (up to 90%) of the carbon
segregates to dislocations and lath boundaries, but
with slower quenching some precipitation of
cementite occurs.
On subsequent tempering of low carbon steels up to
200C further segregation of carbon takes place. but
no precipitation has been observed.
Under normal circumstances it is difficult to
detect any tetragonality in martensitic in steels
with less than 0.2 wt% C, a fact which can
explained by the rapid segregation of carbon
during quenching.
The hardness change; during tempering are also
very dependent on carbon content, as shown in
figure for steels up to 0.4 wt% C.
Above this concentration, an increase in
hardness has been observed in temperature
range 50150C, as -carbide precipitation
strengthens the martensite.
However, the general trend is an overall
softening, as the tempering temperature is
raised.
The absence of other alloying elements means that the
hardenability of the steels is low, so a fully martensitic
structure is only possible in thin sections.
However, this may not be a disadvantage where shallow
hardened surface layers are all that is required.
Secondly, at lower carbon levels, the Ms temperature is
rather high, so autotempering is
likely to take place.
Thirdly, at the higher carbon levels the presence
of retained austenite will influence the results.
Added to these factors, plain carbon steels can exhibit
quench cracking which makes it difficult to obtain reliable
test results. This is particularly the case at higher carbon
levels, i.e. above 0.5 wt% carbon.
The addition of allying elements to a steel has a
substantial effect on the kinetics of the y
transformation, and also of the pearlite reaction.
Most common alloying elements move the TTT curves
to longer times, with the result that it is much easier
to miss the nose of the curve during quenching.
This essentially gives higher hardenability, since
martensite structures can be achieved at slower
cooling rates and, in practical terms, thicker
specimens can be made fully martensitic.
Alloying elements have also been shown to have a
substantial effect in depressing the Ms
temperature.
It is clear that certain elements, notably silicon
can stabilize the -iron carbide to such an extent
that it is still present in the microstructure
after tempering at 400C in steels with 1-2 wt%
Si, and at even higher temperatures if the silicon
is further
increased.
The evidence suggests that both the nucleation
and growth of the carbide is slowed down and
that silicon enters into the -carbide structure.
It is also clear that the transformation of -iron
carbide to cementite is delayed considerably.
While the tetragonality of martensite
disappears by 300C in plain carbon steels, in
steels containing some alloying elements,
e.g. Cr, Mo, W V, Ti, Si, the tetragonal lattice
is still observed after tempering at 450C
and even as high as 500C .
It is clear that these alloying elements
increase the stability of the supersaturated
iron-carbide solid solution.
In contrast manganese and nickel decrease
the stability.
Alloying elements also greatly influence the
proportion of austenite retained on
quenching.
Typically a steel with 4% molybdenum,
0.2%C, in the martensitic state contains less
than 2% austenite, and about 5% is detected
in a steel with 1% vanadium and 0.2%C.
The austenite can be revealed as a fine
network around the martensite laths, by
using dark field electron microscopy.
On tempering each of the above steels at 300C,
the austenite decomposes to give thin grain
boundary
films of cementite which, in the case of the
higher concentrations of retained austenite, can
be fairly continuous along the lath boundaries.
It is likely that this interlath cementite is
responsible for tempered embrittlement
frequently encountered as a toughness minimum
in the range 300350C, by leading to easy
nucleation of cracks, which then propagate
across the tempered martensite laths.
Alloying elements can also restrain the coarsening of
cementite in the range 400-700C, a basic process
during the fourth stage of tempering.
Several alloying elements, notably silicon, chromium.
molybdenum and tungsten, cause the cementite to
retain its fine Widmanstatten structure to higher
temperatures, either by entering into the cementite
structure or by segregating at the carbide-ferrite
interfaces.
Whatever the basic cause may be, the effect is to
delay
significantly the softening process during tempering.
This influence on the cementite dispersion has
other effects, in so far as the carbide particles,
by remaining finer, slow down the reorganization
of the dislocations inherited from the
martensite, with the result that the dislocation
substructures refine more slowly.
In plain-carbon Steel cementite particle begin to
coarsen in the temperature range 350 -400C
and addition of chromium, silicon, molybdenum
or tungsten delays the coarsening to the range
500-550C.
It should be emphasized that up to 500C the
only carbides to form are those of iron.
A number of the familiar alloying elements in
steels form carbides, nitrides and borides which
are thermodynamically more stable than
cementite.
It would therefore be expected that when
strong carbide elements are present in a steel in
sufficient concentration, their carbides would be
formed in preference to cementite .
Nevertheless during the tempering of all ahoy
steels, alloy carbides do not form until the
temperature range 500-600C , because below
this the metallic alloying elements cannot
diffuse sufficiently rapidly to allow alloy
carbides to nucleate.
The metallic elements diffuse substitutionally, in
contrast to carbon and nitrogen which move through
the iron interstitially.
With the result that the diffusivities of carbon and
nitrogen are of several orders of magnitude greater
in iron than those of the metallic alloying
elements.
Consequently higher temperatures are needed for
the necessary diffusion of the alloying elements.
It is this ability of certain alloying elements to form
fine alloy carbide dispersions in the range 500
600C, which remain very fine even after prolonged
tempering, that allows the development of high
strength levels in many alloy steels.
Indeed, the formation of alloy carbides between
500 and 600C is accompanied by a marked
increase in strength, often in excess to that of
the as-quenched martensite.
where:
T is the absolute temperature and
t the tempering time in hours,
while k is a constant which is about 20 for
alloy steels, usually referred to as the
Holloman-Jaffe parameter.
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES: Annealed metals are relatively soft PHYSICAL PROPERTIES: Hardened metals are difficult to cut
and can be cut and shaped more easily. They bend easily and shape. They are very difficult if not impossible to
when pressure is applied. As a rule they are heated and bend. As a rule they are heated and cooled very quickly by
allowed to cool slowly. quenching in clean, cold water.
The animation above shows that an annealed metal is The animation above shows that metals that have not been
usually softer and can be deformed more easily than metals annealed are very difficult to deform.
that are not annealed.
DIVYA -109MM0001
ATUL RANJAN -109MM0125
MANINDRA RANJAN -109MM0556
ZEBA KAMAL -109MM0575