Heat Treatment Lab

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REPORT No 4

MS&E – (13-A)
Submitted to: Sir Usama
Group Participents

Hassan Nadeem 200301054

Mian Sami Mudasir 200301048
Osama 200301013
Umer 200301007

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 Table of Contents

Tempering.............................................................................................................................................. 3
Advantages of Tempered Martensite .................................................................................................... 3
Before Tempering .................................................................................................................................. 3
Tempered Sample .................................................................................................................................. 4
Process Comparison .............................................................................................................................. 5
Conclusion and Results ......................................................................................................................... 5
References .............................................................................................................................................. 7

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Tempering
Tempering is the process of reheating the hard martensitic structure to convert into a litter softer
structure. Martensite is a very hard brittle phase and it doesn’t have the capability to bear load,
machining on it, show ductility and toughness. In heat treatment process we better know that
other processes like annealing and normalizing also produce softer phases which show some
toughness and strength as well but tempered martensite shows better properties then all these
structures. To made martensite more useful we need to reduce its brittleness and for this purpose
we re-heat the martensite below recrystallization temperature (between 300 ºC -700ºC). Basically
we reheat the martensite sample below the critical temperature. [1]

Advantages of Tempered Martensite

The main properties we get from tempering (in our case its Mild Steel):

 Fe3C (cementite) is allowed to precipitate from the super cooled martensite

 It gives some time for the diffusion
 Decreasing the brittleness in structure
 Induces the toughness
 Increasing strength
 Internal stresses get reduced

Before Tempering
After Heating the Sample at about 850 C˚, it causes dissolution of phases and as we suddenly
cool it new fine grains are produced which induces hardness and brittle phase is produced due to
diffusion less transformation. From the practical application point of view, we are always
looking for the material that has enough strength and can withstand with different environmental
conditions but there a problem in martensite structure it is a highly metastable phase (BCT). [2]
During the process whenever it attain a little heat it tries to move towards the stable phase (BCC)
and that’s why it can’t be used in temperature based applications. After quenching we performed
hardness test to check the average hardness value and it comes out to be 258.33 HV due to
distorted grains and brittle structure.

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 Fig (1) Martensite Structure

Tempered Sample
The 1cm mild steel quenched sample was heated in blast furnace to 350 degrees centigrade. The
temperature rises from room temperature to 350 degrees centigrade in about 25 minutes. After
that we hold the sample at constant temperature of 350ºC for about (30-33 minutes) for the
recrystallization of sample. The sample is taken out from the furnace and then placed into the
open air for almost 1 hour to reduce the temperature to room temperature. This tempered
martensite has better properties than martensite. It maintains the hardness with a little decline
while increases ductility and toughness. [1]

Fig (2) Tempered Martensite Structure

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Process Comparison

Fig (3) Process Comparison

Conclusion and Results

Quenching and tempering both are so different processes. One involves the rapid cooling of
material and the other depends upon reheating the quenched sample. From the very start we
performed annealing, after that we performed normalizing and after that we performed
quenching and at last now we performed tempering of this quenched structure. The re-heating
process changes the properties of the brittle martensite to tempered martensite which is hard
from the normalized sample but less hard then the quenched sample. [3]After tempering the mild
steel sample is taken to hardness test to verify our results. VICKER HARDNESS TEST to
compare the tempered martensite hardness with martensite structure hardness. After performing
hardness test, we see that hardness of the sample little bit decreased and brittleness is decreased.

VICKER HARDNESS TEST RESULT OF, MILD STEEL QUENCHING AND TEMPERING

QUENCHING HARDNESS TEMPERING HARDNESS

1 360 HV 146 HV
2 238 HV 158 HV
3 177 HV 181 HV
* Average Hardness= 258.33 HV Average Hardness= 161.67 HV

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 Fig (4) Effect of carbon on hardness of various microstructures [3]

The upper figure (4)shows that higher will be the carbon percentage , higher will the hardness of
the material moreover it also depends upon the various process parameters.

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References

[1] “Tempering (metallurgy),” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tempering_(metallurgy)&oldid 27-Oct-2022.
[Accessed: 04-Dec-2022].

[2] Brandon, “What is quenching?” Materials Science & Engineering Student, 26-Jul-2020.
[Accessed: 04-Dec-2022].

[2] “Practical Maintenance,” Practicalmaintenance.net.

https://practicalmaintenance.net/?p=1532. [Accessed: 04-Dec-2022].