HEAT TREATMENT

With focus on Steels

 Bulk and Surface Treatments

 Annealing, Normalizing, Hardening, Tempering
 Hardenability
 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 Steels Click here to revise the basics required for this topic: Phase_Transformations

 We have noted that how TTT and CCT diagrams can help us design heat treatments to
design the microstructure of steels and hence engineer the properties. In some cases a
gradation in properties may be desired (usually from the surface to the interior- a hard
surface with a ductile/tough interior/bulk).
 In general three kinds of treatments are: (i) Thermal (heat treatment), (ii) Mechanical
(working), (iii) Chemical (alteration of composition). A combination of these treatments are
also possible (e.g. thermo-mechanical treatments, thermo-chemical treatments).
 The treatment may affect the whole sample or only the surface.
 A typical industrial treatment cycle may be complicated with many steps (i.e. a combination
of the simple steps which are outlined in the chapter).

Thermal (heat treatment)

E.g. heat and quench
Or a combination
Treatments Mechanical (Thermo-mechanical,
E.g. shot peening thermo-chemical)
E.g. case carburizing
Chemical
Bulk

Surface
An overview of important heat treatments
 A broad classification of heat treatments possible are given below. Many more specialized
treatments or combinations of these are possible.

HEAT TREATMENT

BULK SURFACE

ANNEALING NORMALIZING HARDENING

THERMAL THERMO-
&
CHEMICAL
TEMPERING

Full Annealing Carburizing

Flame

Recrystallization Annealing MARTEMPERING Nitriding

Induction

Stress Relief Annealing AUSTEMPERING LASER Carbo-nitriding

Spheroidization Annealing Electron Beam

 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 during
casting and welding (stress relief annealing)

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• 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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 Ranges of temperature where Annealing, Normalizing and Spheroidization treatment are
carried out for hypo- and hyper-eutectoid steels.
 Details are in the coming slides.

910C Acm

A3

723C Full Annealing

A1

Spheroidization Stress Relief Annealing


T Recrystallization Annealing

Wt% C
0.8 %
Full Annealing

 The purpose of this heat treatment is to obtain a material with high ductility. A microstructure
with coarse pearlite (i.e. pearlite having high interlamellar spacing) is endowed with such
properties.
 The range of temperatures used is given in the figure below.
 The steel is heated above A3 (for hypo-eutectoid steels) & A1 (for hyper-eutectoid steels) → (hold) → then the
steel is furnace cooled to obtain Coarse Pearlite.
 Coarse Pearlite has low (↓) Hardness but high (↑) Ductility.
 For hyper-eutectoid steels the heating is not done above Acm to avoid a continuous network of
proeutectoid cementite along prior Austenite grain boundaries (presence of cementite along grain boundaries
provides easy path for crack propagation).

910C Acm
Ful
l An
A3 nea
ling

723C Full Annealing

A1


T

Wt% C
0.8 %
Recrystallization Annealing

 During any cold working operation (say cold rolling), the material becomes harder (due to
work hardening), but loses its ductility. This implies that to continue deformation the material
needs to be recrystallized (wherein strain free grains replace the ‘cold worked grains’).
 Hence, recrystallization annealing is used as an intermediate step in (cold) deformation
processing.
 To
Heat A1 →
belowthis
achieve theSufficient
sample is time →below
heated Recrystallization
A1 and held there for sufficient time for
recrystallization to be completed.

910C Acm

A3

723C
Recrystallization Annealing A1


T

Wt% C
0.8 %
 Stress Relief Annealing

 Due to various processes like quenching (differential cooling of surface and interior),
machining, phase transformations (like martensitic transformation), welding, etc. the residual
stresses develop in the sample. Residual stress can lead to undesirable effects like warpage of
the component.
 The annealing is carried out just below A1 , wherein ‘recovery*’ processes are active
(Annihilation of dislocations, polygonization).

Residual stresses → Heat below A1 → Recovery Annihilation of dislocations,

polygonization

Differential cooling 910C

Machining and cold working 723C

Stress Relief Annealing A1

Martensite formation

Welding T

Wt% C
* It is to be noted that ‘recovery’ is a technical term. 0.8 %
Spheroidization Annealing

 This is a very specific heat treatment given to high carbon steel requiring extensive
machining prior to final hardening & tempering. The main purpose of the treatment is to
increase the ductility of the sample.
 Like stress relief annealing the treatment is done just below A1.
 The cyclic heating and cooling near A1 or heating just below the lower critical temperature
and holding for at this temp. Long time leads cementite plates to form cementite spheroids.
The driving force for this (microstructural) transformation is the reduction in interfacial
energy.

910C Acm

A3

723C
Spheroidization A1


T

Wt% C
0.8 %
NORMALIZING
 The sample is heat above A3 | Acm to complete Austenization. The sample is then air cooled to
obtain Fine pearlite. Fine pearlite has a reasonably good hardness and ductility.
 In hypo-eutectoid steels normalizing is done 50C above the annealing temperature.
 In hyper-eutectoid steels normalizing done above Acm → due to faster cooling cementite does
not form a continuous film along GB.
 The list of uses of normalizing are listed below.

Refine grain structure prior to hardening

Purposes To harden the steel slightly

To reduce segregation in casting or forgings

910C ion
zat Acm
No
rma ali
l iz a Norm
A3 tion

723C
A1


T

Wt% C
0.8 %
Through hardening of the sample
 The surface of is affected by the quenching medium and experiences the best possible
cooling rate. The interior of the sample is cooled by conduction through the (hot) sample and
hence experiences a lower cooling rate. This implies that different parts of the same sample
follow different cooling curves on a CCT diagram and give rise to different microstructures.
 This gives to a varying hardness from centre to circumference. Critical diameter (dc) is that
diameter, which can be through hardened (i.e. we obtain 50% Martensite and 50% pearlite at
the centre of the sample).

Schematic showing variation

in cooling rate from surface
to interior leading to
different microstructures
 Tempering is carried out just below the eutectoid temperature (heat → wait→ slow cool).
 In reality the microstructural changes which take place during tempering are very complex.
 The time temperature cycle for tempering is chosen so as to optimize strength and
toughness. E.g. tool steel has a as quenched hardness of Rc65, which is tempered to get a
hardness of Rc45-55.  ' ( BCT )  ( BCC ) Fe C (OR )
Temper
  3

Martensite Ferrite Cementite

Hardenability
Hardenability is the ability of a steel to acheive a certain hardness at
a given depth, upon suitable heat treatment and quench. Hardness
can be measured in steels in any condition. Hardenability presumes
that the steels will be heat treated to acheive a targeted hardness at
a given depth.
 MARTEMPERING & AUSTEMPERING
 These processes have been developed to avoid residual stresses generated during quenching.
 In both these processes Austenized steel is quenched above Ms (say to a temperature T1) for
homogenization of temperature across the sample.
 In Martempering :

 In Austempering:

800 Eutectoid temperature

723 Austenite
Pearlite
600
 + Fe3C
500 Pearlite + Bainite

T →
400 Bainite

300 T1
Ms
200 Austempering
Mf
100
Martempering Martensite

0.1 1 10 102 103 104 105

t (s) →