HEAT TREATMENT

With focus on Steels

 Bulk and Surface Treatments

 Annealing, Normalizing, Hardening, Tempering
 Hardenability
MATERIALS SCIENCE
Part of & A Learner’s Guide
ENGINEERING
AN INTRODUCTORY E-BOOK
Anandh Subramaniam & Kantesh Balani
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur- 208016
Email: anandh@iitk.ac.in, URL: home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh
http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anandh/E-book.htm

Principles of Heat Treatment of Steels

Romesh C Sharma
New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers, New Delhi, 1993.
Heat Treatment of Steels
 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).
 The general classes of possibilities of treatment 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 bulk.
 A typical industrial treatment cycle may be complicated with many steps (i.e. a
combination of the simple step which are outlined in the chapter).

Thermal (heat treatment)

Or a combination
Treatments Mechanical (Thermo-mechanical, thermo-chemical)

Chemical

Bulk

Surface
An overview of important heat treatments

HEAT TREATMENT

BULK SURFACE

ANNEALING NORMALIZING HARDENING

& THERMAL THERMO-
TEMPERING CHEMICAL

Full Annealing Carburizing

MARTEMPERING Flame
Recrystallization Annealing Induction Nitriding

Stress Relief Annealing AUSTEMPERING LASER Carbo-nitriding

Spheroidization Annealing Electron Beam

Ranges of temperature where Annealing, Normalizing and Spheroidization treatment are
carried out for hypo- and hyper-eutectoid steels.

910C Acm

A3

723C Full Annealing

A1

Spheroidization Stress Relief Annealing


T
Recrystallization Annealing

Wt% C
0.8 %
Full Annealing

 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 ↓ Hardness, ↑ Ductility
 Not above Acm → to avoid a continuous network of proeutectoid cementite along grain
boundaries (→ path for crack propagation)

Ful
l An
nea
ling n
910C atio Acm
No
rma al iz
liza
t ion Norm
A3

723C Full Annealing

A1

Spheroidization Stress Relief Annealing


T
Recrystallization Annealing

Wt% C
0.8 %
Recrystallization Annealing

Heat below A1 → Sufficient time → Recrystallization

Cold worked grains → New stress free grains
Used in between processing steps (e.g. sheet rolling)

No
rma tion
910oC Ful
lA
liza
tion aliza Acm
nne m
alin N or
A3 g
Full Annealing
723oC
Spheroidization A1
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C
 Stress Relief Annealing
Annihilation of dislocations,
Residual stresses → Heat below A1 → Recovery polygonization

Welding

Differential cooling Machining and cold working Martensite formation

No
rma tion
910oC Ful
lA
liza
tion aliza Acm
nne m
alin N or
A3 g
Full Annealing
723oC
Spheroidization A1
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C
Spheroidization Annealing
Heat below/above A1 (long time)
Cementite plates → Cementite spheroids → ↑ Ductility
• Used in high carbon steel requiring extensive machining prior to final hardening & tempering
• Driving force is the reduction in interfacial energy

No
rma tion
910oC Ful
lA
liza
tion aliza Acm
nne m
alin N or
A3 g
Full Annealing
723oC
Spheroidization A1
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C
 NORMALIZING

Heat above A3 | Acm → Austenization → Air cooling → Fine Pearlite (Higher hardness)

No n
rma o
910oC Ful liza z ati
lA
nne tion ali Acm
alin Norm
A3 g
Full Annealing
723oC
Spheroidization A1
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T
Purposes
0.8 %
Wt% C

Refine grain structure prior to hardening

To harden the steel slightly

To reduce segregation in casting or forgings

• In hypo-eutectoid steels normalizing is done 50oC 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
 HARDENING

Heat above A3 | Acm → Austenization → Quench (higher than critical cooling rate)

• Quench produces residual strains

• Transformation to Martensite is usually not complete (will have retained Austenite)
• Martensite is hard and brittle
• Tempering operation usually follows hardening; to give a good combination of
strength and toughness
 Typical hardness test survey made along a
diameter of a quenched cylinder

Schematic showing variation in cooling

rate from surface to interior leading to
different microstructures
Severity of quench values of some typical quenching conditions
Process Variable H Value
Severity of Quench as indicated by the heat
Air No agitation 0.02
transfer equivalent H
Oil quench No agitation 0.2
" Slight agitation 0.35 f
H [m1 ]
" Good agitation 0.5 K
" Vigorous agitation 0.7
Water quench No agitation 1.0 f → heat transfer factor
K → Thermal conductivity
" Vigorous agitation 1.5
Brine quench
No agitation 2.0
(saturated Salt water)
" Vigorous agitation 5.0
Ideal quench 

Note that apart from the nature of the quenching medium, the vigorousness of the shake
determines the severity of the quench. When a hot solid is put into a liquid medium, gas bubbles
form on the surface of the solid (interface with medium). As gas has a poor conductivity the
quenching rate is reduced. Providing agitation (shaking the solid in the liquid) helps in bringing
the liquid medium in direct contact with the solid; thus improving the heat transfer (and the
cooling rate). The H value/index compares the relative ability of various media (gases and
liquids) to cool a hot solid. Ideal quench is a conceptual idea with a heat transfer factor of  (
H = )
Schematic of Jominy End Quench Test

Jominy hardenability test Variation of hardness along a Jominy bar

(schematic for eutectoid steel)
Q&A How to increase hardenability?

 Hardenability should not be confused with the ability to obtain high hardness. A material
with low hardenability may have a higher surface hardness compared to another sample
with higher hardenability.
 A material with a high hardenability can be cooled relatively slowly to produce 50%
martensite (& 50% pearlite). A material with a high hardenability has the ‘nose’ of the CCT
curve ‘far’ to the right (i.e. at higher times). Such a material can be through hardened easily.

 Hardenability of plain carbon steel can increased by

alloying with most elements (it is to be noted that this is
an added advantage as alloying is usually done to
improve other properties).
 However, alloying gives two separate ‘C-curves’ for
Pearlitic and Bainitic transformations (e.g. figure to the
right).
 This implies that the ‘nose’ of the Bainitic
transformation has to be avoided to get complete
TTT diagram of low alloy steel (0.42%
Martensite on quenching. C, 0.78% Mn, 1.79% Ni, 0.80% Cr,
0.33% Mo)
U.S.S. Carilloy Steels, United States
Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, 1948)
 Tempering  ' ( BCT )  ( BCC ) Fe3C (OR )

Temper

Martensite Ferrite Cementite

 Heat below Eutectoid temperature → wait→ slow cooling

 The microstructural changes which take place during tempering are very complex
 Time temperature cycle chosen to optimize strength and toughness
 Tool steel: As quenched (Rc 65) → Tempered (Rc 45-55)
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 the steel is then quenched and the entire sample transforms simultaneously
to martensite. This is followed by tempering.
 In Austempering instead of quenching the sample, it is held at T1 for it to transform to
bainite.

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) →
Funda Check Why do we need high hardenability?