REVIEWER IN MATERIAL SCIENCE b.

Process Annealing:used to soften

cold-worked metals without causing
significant grain growth or changes.
HEAT TREATMENT-stands as a cornerstone c. Stress Relieving: below its critical range to
process in metallurgy, enabling the modification relieve residual stresses, typically after
of the physical and mechanical properties of machining, welding, or forming operations.
metals.
APPLICATION
● Automotive, aerospace, manufacturing,
FUNDAMENTALS OF HEAT TREATMENT: and construction.
● Encompasses a suite of processes aimed at ● Automotive components, the softening of
altering the properties of metals through copper or brass for electrical applications,
controlled heating and cooling. and the stress relieving of welded
● Enhance mechanical properties, improve structures.
machinability, relieve internal stresses, and
manipulate microstructure. BENEFITS
● Widely Treated Metals: Steel, aluminum, ● Enhances workability and machinability of
copper, brass, titanium, etc. metals.
● Reduces the risk of cracking or distortion
ADVANTAGES/REASONS: during subsequent manufacturing
1. Enhanced Mechanical Properties processes.
2. Improved Wear Resistance ● Improves the overall quality and
3. Refinement of Microstructure consistency of metal components.
4. Stress Relief
5. Tailored Properties (Customization) 2. NORMALIZING
6. Machinability
PROCESS
DISADVANTAGES: ● HEATING:to a temperature above its
1. Increase Cost critical range, typically between 30°C to
2. Distortion or Warping 50°C above its upper critical temperature
3. Surface Effects (A3).
4. Limited Application ● HOLDING: specified duration to ensure
5. Environmental Concern uniform heating
6. Complexity ● RAPID COOLING: involves air cooling or
cooling in still air.
—--------------------------------------------------------------- OBJECTIVES
TYPES OF HEAT TREATMENT ● GRAIN REFINEMENT: Improve strength ,
1. ANNEALING hardness and toughness – Enhanced
-To reduce hardness, improve machinability, Machinability
induce ductility, and relieve internal stresses. ● STRESS RELIEF: Rapid cooling helps
-involves heating the metal to a specific relieve internal stresses, accumulated from
temperature and then cooling it forging, casting, or machining
slowly to room temperature. ● HOMOGENIZATION: to achieve a more
uniform distribution of alloying elements
PROCESS: within the metal, which can improve its
● HEATING: Above its recrystallization overall consistency and performance.
temperature or its transformation APPLICATION
temperature, ● manufacturing of structural components,
● HOLDING: Held at that temperature for a machinery parts, and engineering
specific duration to allow for uniform components.
heating throughout the material. ● for carbon and low-alloy steels, as well as
● SLOWLY COOLING: It influences the cast irons.
resulting microstructure and properties of
the metal.

TYPES OF ANNEALING:
a. Full Annealing: above its critical
temperature, to produce a uniform, refined
microstructure.

3. QUENCHING
-rapidly cool, primarily to achieve hardness
PROCESS
● HEATING: above its critical point, typically
in the range where austenite forms.
● QUENCHING: rapidly cooled by
immersing it into a quenching medium.
● COOLING RATES: Faster cooling rates
generally result in higher hardness.
OBJECTIVES
● HARDENING: transforming the austenitic
structure into martensite or other hard
phases.
● CONTROL OF MICROSTRUCTURE:
controls the formation, such as martensite,
bainite, or retained austenite.
● MODIFICATION OF PROPERTIES:
strength, toughness, and dimensional
stability,
TYPES OF QUENCHING MEDIA
● WATER QUENCHING: fastest cooling rate,
resulting in high hardness but also higher
risk of distortion and cracking,
● OIL QUENCHING: Slower than water, but
low risk of distortion and cracking
○ medium-
○ carbon steels.
● AIR QUENCHING: slowest cooling rate,
resulting in lower hardness but reduced
risk of distortion and cracking.
○ for low-alloy steels and some non-
ferrous metals.
APPLICATIONS
● automotive, aerospace, tool
manufacturing, and machinery.
● gears, shafts, bearings, cutting tools, and
springs.
4. TEMPERING
-primarily to reduce hardness and brittleness
while improving toughness
and ductility.
PROCESS
● HEATING: specific temperature below its
critical point.
● HOLDING: to allow for the desired changes
in microstructure and properties.
● COOLING: cooled in still air or by
quenching in oil, water, or air
OBJECTIVES:
● REDUCTION OF HARDNESS
● IMPROVEMENT IN TOUGHNESS AND
DUCTILITY:by promoting the formation of
tough microstructures such as tempered
martensite,
● STRESS RELIEF: To reduce the distortion
or cracking.
TYPES OF TEMPERING
● Low-Temperature Tempering: Involves
tempering at relatively low temperatures
(200°C to 400°C) to achieve higher
hardness and strength while maintaining
some level of toughness.
● High-Temperature Tempering: Involves
tempering at higher temperatures (400°C
to 700°C) to maximize toughness and
ductility while sacrificing some hardness
and strength.
APPLICATION
● automotive, aerospace, construction, and
tool manufacturing.
● tempering of steel components such as
gears, springs, shafts, and structural
elements.
5. CASE HARDENING
- also known as surface hardening, is a heat
treatment process used to
increase the hardness and wear resistance of the
surface layer of a metal component while
maintaining a tough and ductile core.
PROCESS
● SURFACE PREPARATION: remove any
contaminants such as oil, grease, or scale.
● APPLICATION OF CASE-HARDENING
AGENT: agent, which introduces carbon,
nitrogen, or other alloying elements into
the surface layer through diffusion.
● HEATING: 800°C to 950°C
● HOLDING:certain duration to allow the
alloying elements to diffuse into the
surface layer.
● QUENCHING: Rapidly cooled
OBJECTIVES
● INCREASE SURFACE HARDNESS, WHILE
RETAIN THE CORE TOUGHNESS &
DUCTILITY
TYPES OF CASE HARDENING
● Carburizing:to form a hard, wear-resistant
layer of carbides, typically on low-carbon
steels.
● Nitriding: to form hard nitrides, which
significantly increase surface hardness and
wear resistance, commonly used for alloy
steels.
● Carbonitriding: to achieve improved
hardness and wear resistance, suitable for
a wide range of steel alloys.
APPLICATION
● automotive, aerospace, manufacturing,
and tooling.
● gears, camshafts, crankshafts, bearings,
valves, and other components subjected to
high wear and friction.
BENEFITS
● ENHANCE WEAR RESISTANCE AND
COST-EFFICIENT
6. GRAPHITIZING(GRAPHITIZATION)
-transforming the structure of carbonaceous
materials, such as cast iron or carbon steel, to
primarily consist of graphite.
PROCESS
● HEATING: 900°C to 1100°C
● HOLDING: certain duration to allow the
structural transformation to occur.
● SLOWED COOLING
OBJECTIVES
● Increase Graphite Content: enhancing its
machinability and ductility.
● Improve Thermal Conductivity: Higher
thermal k compared to cementite in steel
or pearlite in cast iron.
● Reduce Hardness: To its as-quenched or
as-cast state, making it more machinable
and easier to work with.
MATERIALS
● Cast Iron: Graphitizing is commonly
applied to cast iron to convert its
microstructure from predominantly
pearlitic or martensitic to graphitic. This
improves the machinability and ductility of
the cast iron.
● Carbon Steel: Some carbon steels can also
undergo graphitizing to increase their
machinability and ductility. However, this
process is less common in carbon steel
compared to cast iron.
APPLICATION
● machinability and ductility are critical,
such as automotive, machinery
manufacturing, and tooling.
● engine blocks, cylinder heads, gears,
bearings, and other components
subjected to machining or wear.
Additional Types of Heat Treatments
● Aging (and age hardening) is a change in
a metal by which its structure recovers
from an unstable or metastable condition
that has been produced by quenching or
cold working.
● Drawing is often used to mean tempering,
but this usage conflicts with the meaning
of the drawing of a material through a die
and is to be avoided.
● Flame hardening is used to harden only a
portion of a metal..
● Hardening is the heating of certain steels
above the transformation range and then
quenching,for the purpose of increasing
the hardness.
● Induction hardening is a surface
hardening technique in which the surface
of the metal is heated very quickly, using a
no-contact method of induction heating.
● Malleablizing is an annealing process
whereby combined carbon in white cast
iron is transformed wholly or in part to
temper carbon. Temper carbon is free
(graphitic) carbon in the form of rounded
nodules, characteristic forms in
graphitizing and malleablizing.
● Quenching is a process of cooling a metal
very quickly. This is most often done to
produce martensite transformation.
● Selective hardening, many heat treating
methods have been developed to alter the
properties of only a portion of an object.
● Spheroidizing is any heating and cooling
of steel that produces a rounded or
globular form of carbide. Below the
transformation range, usually followed by
slow cooling; or, for small objects of
high-carbon steel.
● Stress relieving (thermal) is the heating of
a metal body to a suitable temperature
(generally just below the transformation
range for steel, say 1000-1200°F) and
holding it at that temperature for a
suitable time (1 to 3 hours for steel) for the
purpose of reducing internal residual
stresses.
● Transformation range for ferrous metals is
the temperature interval during which
austenite is formed during heating; it is
also the temperature interval during which
austenite disappears during cooling. Thus,
there are two ranges; these may overlap
but never coincide. The range of heating is
higher than that of cooling.