Definition of heat treatment

Heat treatment is an operation or combination of operations

involving heating at a specific rate, soaking at a temperature
for a period of time and cooling at some specified rate. The
aim is to obtain a desired microstructure to achieve certain
predetermined properties (physical, mechanical, magnetic or
electrical).

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Heat Treatment of Steel
 Objectives of heat treatment (heat treatment processes)

The major objectives are

• to increase strength, harness and wear resistance (bulk hardening,
surface hardening)

• to increase ductility and softness (tempering, recrystallization

annealing)

• to increase toughness (tempering, recrystallization annealing)

• to obtain fine grain size (recrystallization annealing, full

annealing, normalising)

• to remove internal stresses induced by differential deformation by

cold working, non-uniform cooling from high temperature during3
casting and welding (stress relief annealing)
• to improve machineability (full annealing and normalising)

• to improve cutting properties of tool steels (hardening and

tempering)

• to improve surface properties (surface hardening, corrosion

resistance-stabilising treatment and high temperature
resistance-precipitation hardening, surface treatment)

• to improve electrical properties (recrystallization, tempering,

age hardening)

• to improve magnetic properties (hardening, phase

transformation)
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 Heat Treatment Processes
Annealing

Normalizing

Hardening

Tempering

Surface Hardening
 Heat Treatment Processes
Annealing
•used on low and medium carbon steels to make them ductile
•15 o – 40 o above the upper or lower (depending on carbon content) critical
temperature and then furnace cooled
•results in coarse pearlite
Cooling rate is very slow around 10oC/hour
Heat Treatment Processes
Heat Treatment Processes
 Heat Treatment Processes
Normalizing
•used to refine grains
•heated to 55o – 85o above the upper critical temperature then air cooled
•results in fine pearlite
 Heat Treatment Processes
Hardening
Heat Treatment Processes
Heat Treatment Processes
Austempering Martempering Tempered Martensite
Q1: A U.S. steel producer has four “quench baths,” used to quench plates of eutectoid steel to 700˚C,
590˚C, 350˚C, and 22˚C respectively. Using the TTT diagram below, advise the company on how they
can produce steel with the following microstructures. Assume that each bath will instantaneously
allow the steel to reach the bath temperature.

a. 50% fine pearlite, 12.5% bainite, 37.5% martensite.

b. 50% coarse pearlite, 50% martensite.

c. 50% bainite, 50% coarse pearlite.

d. 85-95% fine pearlite, 5-15% coarse pearlite.

Q2: The company makes a cylinder of eutectoid steel of radius r. Due to heat transfer, the entire
cylinder will not cool at the same rate. The cooling rates are as follows: at the surface (a), the cooling
rate is 200 C°/s, at a distance (b) into the cylinder, the cooling rate is 140 C°/s, and at a distance (c)
into the cylinder the cooling rate is 30 C°/s. Please draw the microstructure as a function of distance
into the cylinder.

(a) (b) (c)