HEAT TREATMENT

SUNIL DIVEKAR
 HEAT TREATMENT
Topic Slide number
Introduction and objectives 3 to 8
Classification of Heat treatment(HT) 9 to 10
General description of process 11 to14
Annealing 15 to 20
Normalising 21
Comparison of Annealing and Normalising 22
Hardening and transformation stresses 23 to 32
Retained Austenite 33 to 35
Tempering 36 to 38
HT equipments, fixture and atmospheres 39 to 42
Time temperature transformation diagram 43 to 49
Interrupted cooling 50 to 54
Case Hardening heat treatments 55 to 74

Knowing how to apply the following content is equally important than the
content itself.
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 Heat Treatment
Materials: Metals and Alloys

Iron and Iron Base Metals other than Iron

alloys …and their Alloys
“Ferrous Alloys” “Non Ferrous “metals
and Alloys

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 Heat Treatment
Materials: Metals and Alloys

“Ferrous Alloys”

Other Alloying elements With

Only Carbon
or with out carbon
Ni, Cr, Mo, W, V, Si, Mn, B…..
Plain Carbon Steel
Alloy Steel
e.g.EN8, C45, AISI1020 e.g.20Mncr5, SAE8620, 4340
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 Heat Treatment
• Heat treatment is done to change the properties
and Performance of a component.
Job about to be cut Heat
Good Machinability
on machine tool Treatment

Heat
Tool to be used for Good Hardness
cutting Treatment

Heat
Welding Stress Relief
stresses Treatment

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Heat treatment objectives:
To improve Machineability Coarse grain
To refine Grains
To relieve residual Stresses
To change Hardness
To improve ductility Fine grain

To produce hard surface on a ductile interior.

To improve electrical and magnetic properties

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 HEAT TREATMENT

Heating and cooling affects microstructure of metals

and alloys.
Microstructure affects the properties of metals and
alloys.
Properties affect the performance of metal and alloys
in the designed application.
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Heat treatment is a combination of heating and
cooling operations, timed and applied to a metal
or alloy in the solid state to obtain desirable
condition of the metal or alloy.

Heat treatment can be further defined as a

series of time temperature treatments.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Classification of heat treatment processes:
Continuous cooling
1. Annealing
2. Normalising
3. Hardening
4. Tempering
5. Case Hardening

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Classification of heat treatment processes:
Stepped cooling
1. Isothermal Annealing
2. Austempering
3. Martempering

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hold /Soak

Heat treatment consists

of Controlled
1. Heating
2. Soaking and
Heat: 3. Cooling of Metal
Oil fired furnace, Cool
Electric resistance.
Controlled To Change its
atmosphere Microstructure,
Properties and
Performance.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hold /Soak the given component at A3 +50OC.
Microstructure: Austenitic, All carbon dissolved

STEEL AT ROOM TEMP

Hypoeutectoid/Eutectoid
Microstructure: Ferrite & Pearlite.
Crystal Structure:BCC
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hold /Soak the given component at A3 +50OC.
Microstructure: Austenitic, All carbon dissolved
Crystal Structure: FCC

Slow cooling, Rapid cooling,

(usually in furnace) Slightly fast (In water/brine)
cooling,
(Usually in still air)

STEEL AT ROOM TEMP Annealing Normalising

Hypoeutectoid/Eutectoid
Hardening
Coarse grain, Fine grain,
Microstructure: Ferrite & Pearlite. Martensite,
BCC Structure resolved pearlite unresolved BCT, Hard,
Soft pearlite
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 Heat Treatment
STEEL: AUSTENITE

Slow Cooling Fast Cooling

Diffusion assisted Diffusionless

Phases formed: Phase formed:

Ferrite, Cementite Martensite

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Annealing
• Full annealing
• Process Anneal
• Spherodise Annealing
• Stress-relief annealing

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Process Anneal

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Process Anneal

Grains elongated in the

direction of rolling

After process annealing

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Spherodise Anneal

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Process Anneal: Stages in Recrystallisation
A. Metal in cold rolled state
B. Recovery
C. Nucleation of new crystals at the grain boundaries of old
D. Growth of new crystal by absorbing old crystals
F. Recrystalisation is complete

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Heat treatment temperatures

Normalising
Full Annealing and
Hardening

Spherodising Anneal

Process Annealing

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Normalising:
• To refine grain size
• To improve machinability
• To reduce heat treatment time

In this heat treatment the component is

heated, soaked and then cooled at a rate
relatively faster than that used in annealing.
(usually cooling in still air)
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 HEAT TREATMENT
• Differentiate between annealing and Normalising of steel on the
basis of cooling rate, microstructure, grain size and strength.
Criteria Annealing Normalising
Cooling rate Slowest Cooling rate, Relatively faster cooling
Cooling done in furnace rate, Colling of job done
in open air
Microstructure The Structure is well The Pearlite may be seen
formed and well unresloved under optical
resolved microscope
Grain size Coarse Grains Fine grains

Strength The steel is at its lowest Slightly higher strength

strength and highest
ductility
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening:
The Component is heated, soaked and then cooled
rapidly by Quenching.
The quenching may be done in any of the following
media, depending on requirement:
• Salt Bath
• Water
• Oil
Increasing severity of cooling
• Proprietary quenchant
• Airquenching.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Changes in crystal structure
FCC Austenite changes to BCT Martensite

b
a=b≠c

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Changes in Microstructure
FCC Austenite changes to BCT Martensite
Actual Microstructure
Schematic Austenite

Martensite

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Changes in crystal structure

•FCC Austenite changes to BCT Martensite

•Change in phase is associated with change in volume
Martensite : Austenite in
Volume increases compression

Interface shear
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Due to rapid cooling:
1. Thermal Stresses are formed in the component
due to uneven cooling rate at surface and core

2. Transformation stresses arise due to change in

specific volume from Austenite to Martensite

3. Shear stresses are formed at interface of

martensite and Austenite

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Characteristics of Martensitic Transformation
• Martensitic transformation is diffusion less with no
change in composition (time independent). The
transformation takes place in 10-7 seconds.
• Martensitic transformation starts at Ms (Martensite
start) and complete at Mf (Martensite finish). Initially,
when Ms is just crossed, rate of martensite formation
is slow.
• It is an athermal transformation- Martensitic
transformation continues when temperature is falling
and it practically stops when cooling is stopped.
Temperature dependant transformation.
• More the carbon content of steel produces more
distortion gives higher hardness to the steels.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Hardening: Characteristics of martensitic transformation
• Practically martensitic transformation is never
complete. i.e. fully austenitic structure before Ms
does not transform to 100% martensite as the
theory indicates but some part or percentage of
austenite always remains untransformed.

• This unaltered phase is called as retained austenite

near Mf it again reduces. i.e. between Ms and Mf
rate of formation of martensite is not linear.

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 Heat Treatment
Materials: Metals and Alloys - STEEL
Hardened steel

Hardness Annealed steel

And
Strength

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.2

Weight Percent Carbon

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 HEAT TREATMENT
During Hardening the component may be highly
stressed and be prone to damage in any of the
following ways
Distortion
Cracking
Uneven hardness on surface
Overheating and burning
Oxidation and scaling at surface
Retention of Austenite
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 HEAT TREATMENT

Reasons for quench cracks

• Overheating, Improper quenchant, Improper
selection of steel, too much time between the
quenching and the tempering of the
component, Improper design, Non-metallic
inclusions.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Effect of Retained Austenite:
• The further transformation of retained austenite
may also increase hardness or brittleness of the
metal, which can leads to failure of the
component

• Failure of such tooling components is undesirable

from a manufacturing perspective because of the
cost associated with tooling replacement and loss
of production capabilities

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Effect of Retained Austenite

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Tempering:
• This heat treatment must be given
immediately after hardening to reduce or
eliminate the damaging effects arising due to
hardening.
• In this heat treatment the component are
reheated to a pre-determined temperature.
• Tempering can be carried out at various
temperatures

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Tempering: High
Tempering Temperature OC
temperature 35
tempering 38

42 Hardness
Medium HRc
46
temperature
50
tempering
53
Low 56
temperature
60
tempering
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 Heat Treatment

The objectives of tempering are:

To improve Toughness.
To improve Impact Strength.
To relive the internal stresses of steel.
To get the stable microstructure by converting
retained austenite in to martensite.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Equipment used in heat treatment processes:
1. Furnace
2. Quenching media Tanks
Quenching unit- Quenching tank, agitating unit

3. Atmosphere
Furnace atmosphere generating unit
4. Pre and Post Heat treatment equipment
Washing units
5. Loading and Unloading equipment.
Fixtures, cranes, ramps, rollers…..

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 Heat Treatment
Furnaces used in Heat treatment
Furnace is a unit to heat the job

Furnaces can be oil fired, gas fired or electrically

heated.
Furnaces can be batch type or continuous type

Furnaces can be muffle type or salt bath type

Furnaces can be horizontal or vertical pit type

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 Heat Treatment
Atmospheres used in Heat treatment shop

Rich Exothermic gas

Endo Thermic gas

Cracked Ammonia

Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Argon

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 Heat Treatment
Fixtures used in Heat treatment
Jobs or components can be loaded singularly if large
or in multiple numbers if small. The job is required to
be held inside the furnace properly using specifically
fabricated holding units called as fixtures

Fixtures provide ease of loading and unloading

Fixtures can be designed to hold the job so as to

minimise the distortion
SUNIL DIVEKAR
21 April 2023 42
 HEAT TREATMENT
Stepped Cooling

Austenitic Temperature Set of transformation

Set of transformation
start points
end points
Furnace

Salt Bath furnace

Temperature

Room
temperature
Time
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time Temperatures Transformation (TTT) Diagram
Austenitic Temperature Set of transformation
Set of transformation
start points
end points
Furnace

Salt Bath furnace

Temperature

Time
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time Austenitic Temperature

Temperature
Transformation
(TTT) Diagram

TemperatureOC

Room
temperature

Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time
Temperature
Transformation
(TTT) Diagram

TemperatureOC

Untransformed Zone

Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time
Temperature
Transformation
(TTT) Diagram

TemperatureOC

Transition Zone

Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time
Temperature
Transformation
(TTT) Diagram

TemperatureOC

Transformed Zone

Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT
Time Soft
Temperature
Transformation
(TTT) Diagram

TemperatureOC

Hard

Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT

Martempering

TemperatureOC

Time Temperature
Transformation (TTT)
Diagram
Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT

Austempering

TemperatureOC

Time Temperature
Transformation (TTT)
Diagram
Time, seconds
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 HEAT TREATMENT

Annealing v/s
Isothermal
annealing
TemperatureOC

Time Temperature
Transformation (TTT)
Diagram
Time, seconds
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 Heat Treatment
Differentiate between Martempering and Austempering
Basis of Martempering Austempering
differentiation
The process Martempering is an interrupted Austempering is the isothermal
quench from the austenitizing transformation of a ferrous alloy at a
temperature of ferrous alloy. temperature below that of pearlite
formation and above that of martensite
formation
End product End product of Martempering End product of Austempering is
microstructure heat treatment is Martensitic Bainitic structure
structure
Purpose of The holding period at temperature A holding of component at quenching
interrupt quench above Ms provides a temperature completes the
predetermined delay and allows transformation from Austenite to
equalization of surface and core bainite
temperatures
Mechanical A martempered steel will be An austempered steel will be tough
property brittle 53
21 April 2023 SUNIL DIVEKAR
 Heat Treatment
Explain why thicker sections are more susceptible to cracking during hardening
heat treatment. Which heat treatment will you recommend?
The difference in cooling rate between the centre and the surface is
much more in a thicker section. As soon as the temperature at the
surface crosses Ms temperature, martensite forms accompanied by
volume expansion. The core is still soft austenite and can
accommodate deformation if required. However later when its
temperature goes below Ms it would expand, when outer core which
is already transformed is hard and cannot accommodate
deformation. A tensile stress therefore develops at the surface and it
becomes prone to cracking. If thickness is less the difference in
temperature is not large. Transformation takes place almost
simultaneously with little chance of developing high tensile stress at
the surface. Martempering is recommended since it allows
homogenisation of temperature before martensite transformqation
begins.
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 Heat Treatment
Case hardening:
Heating the surface layer of Job
followed by rapid cooling in water, oil
or other medium.
Provides high degree of hardness to
the surface with minimum deformation
without effecting the structure or
hardness of the rest.
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 Heat Treatment
Case hardening: Component: Tough

Soft Core Hard Case

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 Heat Treatment
Case hardening:

Case hardening heat treatments provides high

degree of hardness to the surface with minimum
deformation in the component. The structure or
hardness of the core is not hardened.
• Carburising
• Nitriding
• Flame Hardening
• Induction Hardening

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 Heat Treatment
Carburising:

In this process carbon is diffused on the surface of

the steel. The carbon is absorbed in solid.

This is most widely used process of surface

hardening of steel . It is carried out on low carbon
steels containing carbon about 0.10% to 0.25 %.

In this process the steel is heated to austenitic region

800- 1000°C and the surface layer is enriched with
carbon up to 0.7 to 0.9 %.
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 Heat Treatment
Case hardening: In side Carburising furnace
Carbon rich
environment Carbon
rich Case

Component
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 Heat Treatment
Carburising: Carbon is diffused at surface
High carbon Case outside

Low carbon Steel inside

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 Heat Treatment
Carburising:

Carburising can be done with any of the following

three surroundings:

Solid or Pack carburising

Liquid or salt bath carburising

Gas Caburising

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 Heat Treatment
Nitriding:

In this process Nitrogen is diffused in the surface of

component.

A process of case hardening in which a ferrous alloy,

usually of special composition, is heated in an
atmosphere of ammonia or in contact with
nitrogenous material to produce surface hardening
by the absorption of nitrogen without quenching

Nitriding is carried out in the temperature range of

450OC to 590OC
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 Heat Treatment
CarboNitriding:

In this process Nitrogen and Carbon are diffused

in the surface of component.

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 Heat Treatment
• Why carburising is carried out at a
temperature range above 900OC
• At high temperatures diffusion is faster
hence a good depth of carburising can be
obtained.
• Also At that temperature austenite which
has higher solubility for carbon aids
carbon diffusion.

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 HEAT TREATMENT
Heat treatment temperatures

Carburising Temperature
Carbon dissolves in Austenite

Nitriding
Nitrogen dissolves in
Temperatures
ferrite

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 Heat Treatment
Comparison between Carburising and Nitriding

Hardness Case Depth

Carburising HRC60 0.025mm to 4mm

Nitriding HRC70 0.025mm to 0.05mm

Carbonitriding HRC 70 0.07mm to 0.5mm

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 Heat Treatment
Carburising:
Carbon is diffused at surface

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 CARBURISING and NITRIDING COMPARED
Criteria of Carburising Nitriding
differentiation
Diffusing Carbon is diffused on the surface of Nitrogen is diffused on the surface of the
the component component
element
Process The surface treatment is carried out The surface treatment is carried out at a
at higher temperature range of relatively lower temperature of 500OC to
temperature
920OC to 1050OC 600OC
Target phase The carbon is diffused to dissolve in The Nitrogen is diffused to dissolve in Ferrite
Austenite
Post process A separate hardening treatment is The nitride case is very hard, so a post
required treatment hardening is not necessary
treatment
required
Thickness Can vary in the range of 50 to 400 Varies in the range of 25 to 250 microns (
microns relatively thinner)
Properties Addition of carbon makes the surface Makes the case extremely hard and delivers
hard. It can be further hardened by residual compressive stress on surface.
imparted to
hardening heat treatment Nitriding improves fatigue life of component
surface due to the presence of these residual
21 April 2023 SUNIL DIVEKAR compressive stresses 68
 Heat Treatment
Induction hardening:
The component is heated to Austenitic temperature by
induction heating and then quenched in water.

The components are heated to a temperature above

transformation temperature by means of alternating current.
The alternating current is passed through a water cooled
copper tube wound around the component to be heated.
Eddy currents are formed. Heating takes place due to I2R and
hysteresis losses(till curie point).

Case depth depends on frequency of alternating field,

permeability of metal and heating time.
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 Heat Treatment
Flame hardening:

The component is heated to Austenitic

temperature by oxy acetylene flame
heating and then quenched in water.

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 Heat Treatment
Flame hardening and Induction Hardening

The component is heated rapidly hence

oxidation loss is less.

The rapid heating allows temperature of

surface to be raised before substantial heat
dissipation to the core takes place. Hence
after quenching only surface hardens. Core
remains soft

Raw Material: 0.4 to 0.5 % carbon steel.

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 Heat Treatment
FLAME HARDENING
• Flame hardening is a surface hardening process in
which heat is applied by a high temperature flame.
• Heating is followed by quenching. The quenched part
undergoes martensitic transformation increasing
hardness and brittleness.
• It is generally applied to medium and large
components such as large gears, sprockets and slide
ways of machine tools.
• Carbon and Alloy steels with 0.40/0.45% C are most
suitable for this process.
• Oxy-Acetylene flame is used.
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 Heat treatment
Flame Hardening set up

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 Heat treatment
Flame Hardening set up

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 THANK YOU !!

21 April 2023 SUNIL DIVEKAR 75