INTRODUCTION

By using the heat treatment procedure, metals and alloys can have their
characteristics altered. Annealing, normalising, and quenching techniques will be
used in this experiment.
 Annealing
A term used to describe a procedure that involves heating to a suitable temperature,
maintaining it there, and then cooling at a suitable rate. This procedure is primarily
used to soften materials, but it can also be used to simultaneously produce desired
changes in other properties or microstructure. The goal of such modifications may
include, but is not limited to, increasing dimensional stability, improving mechanical
or electrical properties, and facilitating cold working. The time-temperature cycles
that are utilised vary greatly in terms of the highest temperature that may be reached
as well as the cooling rate that is used, depending on the composition of the
material, its state, and the intended results.
This process has three essential steps:
 Metals and alloys are heated to a specific temperature.
 Maintaining the material's temperature For some changing to appear at
specific times.
 A furnace that is slowly cooling while the electricity is turned off, cooling the
atmosphere or bringing the temperature of the room back to normal.

 Quenching
To attain desirable qualities, metals and alloys must be cooled quickly; most Only
possible by submerging the meta in liquid nitrogen, salt, water, or oil. The majority of
copper base alloys respond to quenching only by cooling more quickly. H eat is used
to create martensite steel in steel.
 Normalizing
An iron-base alloy is heated over the transformation range and then cooled to room
temperature in still air as part of the normalising process.

OBJECTIVES
 To determine the changes of microstructure of the
samples (metals and alloys) due to the different types
of heat treatment.
 To study the grain structures using metallurgy
microscope.
 To study the effect of etching on the microstructure.
MATERIALS AND APPARATUS
 Furnace
 Mild Steel (Keluli lembut)
 Metallurgy microscope
 Cooling medium
 Grinding and polishing
 Nitric acid (larutan nital)

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
a) 4 pieces of mild steel were heated in the furnace at a temperature of 700 °C for 2
hours.
b) The first piece of mild steel in the furnace (annealing process) and the second
piece of mild steel at room temperature (normalizing process) were cooled.
c) The third piece of mild steel was quenched in water and the last piece in oil.
d) All the specimens were grinded and polished.
Note: Refer lab manual1 for grinding and polishing process.
 RESULTS
10x 50x 100x

Metal without
bubble cast

Metal with
bubble cast

Alloy without
bubble cast

Alloy with
bubble cast
DISCUSSIONS
Precaution:

 The silicon carbide paper should be new so the sample can be grinded
perfectly.
 The grinding machine should be stopped first if there are any accidents on
dropping of the sample from our hand.
 Make sure the ratio of resin and hardener are accurate which is 3:1 ratio.

These tests have shown that grinding is the first step in mechanical material
removal. Proper grinding removes damaged or deformed surface material while
minimising future surface deformation. A level surface with little damage that can be
rapidly and easily polished off is the desired outcome. By creating chips of the
specimen material from fixed abrasive particles, grinding eliminates substance.
When making chips with a sharp abrasive grain, the least degree of specimen
distortion and highest removal rate are accomplished. After then, polishing was
carried out in stages. We may polish items to enhance their look, shield equipment
from contamination, get rid of oxidation, and create a reflective surface.
As a result of this experiment, we can see that cooling metal in a furnace
produces a more homogenous surface than cooling metal at room temperature. This
is because the furnace can reduce the amount of surface water that is wet.
Therefore, the metal should be dry in the furnace for a more consistent and smooth
surface. Furthermore, the surface structure of the metal will vary depending on
whether it is submerged in water or oil when dry. When hot metal is placed in oil
rather than water, the surface doesn't scrape as much. This is due to the protective
layer that oil can offer to metal surfaces. Because of this, when we grind the metal
that dried in the water, it has more scratches than oil.
Additionally, when metal is heated in water, a process known as quenching can
quickly bring the metal back to room temperature. This prevents the metal's
microstructure from significantly changing as it cools. Because of this, we may
observe that the metal at room temperature has more grain boundaries on its dry
microstructure surface when we compare the magnification power of a metal in water
at 100x and at room temperature at 100x.
Then, we compared two metals with similar properties but varying degrees of
amplification. Metal that is dry and at normal temperature has more holes, thus we
cannot see the grain and grain boundaries. To observe the grain and grain
boundaries, however, the magnification must be increased to 100x, which is
essential for our microscopy inquiry. The higher the magnification power, the sharper
our perspective of microscopic observation is; this is also true for other metal
surfaces that dry in different conditions.
CONCLUSION
Skills on grinding and polishing samples were learned by us and samples
microstructures observed using optical metallurgy microscope under 10x, 50x and
100x magnification. Basic principle of optical microscope and its utilities understood
after these experiments. We know how to take the snapshot of the samples viewed
under the microscope. We also know that when we dry the samples under different
condition will make a change on its surface. Lastly, we know that not only that, the
ratio of epoxy also influences the microstructure but the cooling rate also important.

QUESTIONS
1. Determine the microstructure and state the magnification of the samples for each
heat treatment.
While the sample with heat treatment through annealing and quenching has a
martensite microstructure and is magnified 50 times, the sample without heat
treatment has inter-grain microaggregates.
4. What is the effect of different.cooling rate on the microstructure of steel?
As atomic diffusion is suppressed by faster cooling rates, ferrite grain size decreases
and high strength, hardness, dislocation density, and fine phases emerge. Slow
cooling rates, on the other hand, cause the phase to change into polygonal ferrite, a
soft, coarse, and less dislocated phase. Reduced cooling rate (CR) during quenching
reduced hardness and strength but had minimal impact on low-temperature
toughness. Hardness and strength decreased after tempering whereas low-
temperature toughness rose.
5. Clarify the factors that influence the changes in the microstructure of the steel.
Grain size, heat treatment, atmospheric exposure, and temperature are factors that
influence how the steel's microstructure changes.
6. Clarify the uses of cooling process from the aspect of heat treatment in
manufacture sector.
In the petrochemical and refining industries, heat treatment is a crucial step. It
enables us to change the metallurgical properties of pipelines and equipment to
better suit the purposes for which they are intended. This frequently entails changing
a material's elasticity, toughness, ductility, and hardness.
REFERENCES
1. The Importance of Heat Treatment to Mechanical Integrity. (2021). Retrieved
November 3, 2022, from Inspectioneering.com website:
https://inspectioneering.com/journal/2021-04-29/9630/an-overview-of-heat-treatment-
in-the-refining-power-and-petrochemical-industry#:~:text=Heat%20treatment%20is
%20an%20important,toughness%2C%20ductility%2C%20and%20elasticity.

2. Munter, M. (2017, June 14). Factors That Determine The Mechanical Properties Of A
Metal - Clinton Aluminum. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from Clinton Aluminum
website: https://www.clintonaluminum.com/factors-that-determine-the-mechanical-
properties-of-a-metal/#:~:text=The%20mechanical%20properties%20of
%20metal,exposed%20to%20in%20industrial%20processes.

3. Md Israr Equbal, Alam, P., Rajkumar Ohdar, Kumar Aniket Anand, & Md. Serfraj
Alam. (2016). Effect of Cooling Rate on the Microstructure and Mechanical
Properties of Medium Carbon Steel. International Journal of Metallurgical
Engineering, 5(2), 21–24. Retrieved from
http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijmee.20160502.01.html#:~:text=Higher%20cooling
%20rates%20lead%20to,dislocated%20phases%20like%20polygonal%20ferrite.