4 - Heat Treatment

Heat Treatment
of Metals
Heat-Treatment
 Heat treatment is a method used to alter the physical,
and sometimes chemical properties of a material. The
most common application is metallurgical
 It involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to
extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such
as hardening or softening of a material
It applies only to processes where the heating and
cooling are done for the specific purpose of altering
properties intentionally
Generally, heat treatment uses phase transformation
during heating and cooling to change a microstructure
in a solid state.
Types of Heat-Treatment (Steel)
 Annealing
 Tempering, and Quenching
 Precipitation hardening
 Case hardening
Annealing
A heat treatment process in which a metal is exposed to an
elevated temperature for an extended time period and
then slowly cooled.
Purpose:
1.Relieve stresses of cold working
2.Increase softness, ductility and toughness
3.Produce specific microstructure
Annealing
Three Stages of Annealing
1. Heating to a desired temperature
2. Holding or soaking at that temperature
3. Cooling usually to room temperature
Note: Time in above procedures is important
- During heating and cooling temp gradients exit b/w inside and
outside portions of part. If rate of temp change is tool high,
temp gradients will induce internal stress in part and hence
cracking
2

1  3
T
T α+Fe3C
α+Fe3C
Time
Time
Types of Annealing
1. Stress-Relief Annealing (or Stress-relieving)
2. Normalizing
3. Full Annealing
4. Spheroidizing Annealing (or Spheroidizing )
5. Isothermal Annealing
Iron-C Phase Diagram
B
Temp Ranges in Fe-C Phase Diagram
-
A1. Lower
critical Temp A3.
Upper critical

Temp for Hypo-
eutectoid steels T 
Acm. Upper Fe3C
critical Temp for
Hyper- eutectoid
steels
 Eutectoid

α+Fe3C
Temp Ranges for Annealing Processes
1. Stress-Relief Annealing
 Itis an annealing process below
the transformation temperature
A1, with subsequent slow
cooling, the aim of which is to
reduce the internal residual
stresses in a workpiece without
intentionally changing its
structure and mechanical
properties
1. Stress-Relief Annealing
 For plain carbon and low-alloy steels the temperature to
which the specimen is heated is usually between 450
and 650˚C, whereas for hot-working tool steels and
high-speed steels it is between 600 and 750˚C
 This treatment will not cause any phase changes, but
recovery & recrystallization may take place.
 Machining allowance sufficient to compensate for any
warping/distrotion resulting from stress relieving
should be provided
Causes of Residual Stresses
1.Mechanical factors (e.g., cold-working during metal
forming/machining)
2.Thermal factors (e.g., thermal stresses caused by
temperature gradients within the work-piece during heating
or cooling)
3.Metallurgical factors (e.g., phase transformation upon
cooling wherein parent and product phases have different
densities
- In the heat treatment of metals, quenching or rapid

cooling is the cause of the greatest residual stresses
Stress Relief Annealing –
Temperature & Time Vs Stresses
 Higher temperatures and

longer times of annealing
bring residual stresses to
lower levels
 All kinds of times (heating
time, soaking time, cooling
time)
Stress Relief Annealing –
Cooling Rate Vs Stresses
 The residual stress level after stress-relief annealing will be
maintained only if the cool down from the annealing
temperature is controlled and slow enough that no new
internal stresses arise.
 New stresses that may be induced during cooling depend
on:
(1)Cooling rate
(2)Cross-sectional size of the
workpiece, and
(3)Composition of
the steel
2. Normalizing
 A heat treatment process consisting of
austenitizing at temperatures of 50–80˚C above
upper critical temperature (A1 , Acm) followed by
slow cooling (usually in air)
 The aim of which is to obtain a fine- grained,
uniformly distributed, ferrite– pearlite
structure
 Normalizing is applied mainly to unalloyed and
low-alloy hypo-eutectoid steels
 For hypereutectoid steels the austenitizing
temperature is 50–80˚C above the ACm
transformation temperature
Normalizing – Heating and
Cooling Purpose of soaking:
1. To allow metal to
attain uniform temp
2. All the austenite
A3
transform
pearlite, especially
into
A1
for hyper-eutectoid
compositions
Normalizing – Austenitizing
Temperature Range
1. Depend on
composition
2. Increase in C %
reduces temp for
hypo-eutectoid steels
3. Increase in C %
increases temp for
hypo-eutectoid steels
Effect of Normalizing on Grain Size
 Normalizing refines (reduces) the grains of a steel that
have become coarse (long and irregular) as a result of
heavy deformations as in forging or in rolling
 The fine grains have higher toughness than coarse grains,
Steel
with
0.5% C
Normalizing after Rolling
 After hot rolling, the
structure of steel is usually
oriented in the rolling
direction
 To remove the oriented
structure and obtain the
uniform mechanical
properties in all directions,
a normalizing annealing has
to be performed
Normalizing after Forging
•  After forging at high temperatures,
especially with work-pieces that vary
widely in cross sectional size, because of
the different rates of cooling from the
forging temperature, a heterogeneous
structure is obtained that can be made
uniform by normalizing
•  Normalizing is also done to improve
• machinability of low-c steels

Normalizing – Holding Time
 Holding time at austenitizing temperature may be
calculated using the empirical formula:
t = 60 + D
where t is the holding time (min) and D is the
maximum diameter of the workpiece (mm).
3. Full Annealing
- For compositions less than eutectoid, the metal is heated above
A3 line to form austenite
- For compositions larger than eutectoid, the metal is heated
above A1 line to form austenite and Fe3C
- Cooled slowly in a furnace instead in air as in Normalizing.
Furnace is switched off, both metal and furnace cool at the same
rate
Usually applied for low
- Microstructure outcome: Coarse and medium C steel
Pearlite. In Normalizing,
structure?
- Structure is relatively softer than
that in Normalizing
- Full annealing is normally used
when material needs to be

deformed further.
4. Spheroidizing Annealing
 It is also called as Soft Annealing
 Any process of heating and cooling steel that produces a
rounded or globular form of carbide (Fe3C)
 It is an annealing process at temperatures close below
or close above the A1 temperature, with subsequent slow
cooling
 Used for Medium & High C-Steels
- Spheroidite can form 

at lower temperatures but the Fe3C
time needed drastically increases,

as this is a diffusion-controlled 
Fe3C
process.
Spheroidizing: How to Perform
 By heating alloy at a temp just below
A1 (700C). If pre-cursor structure is
pearlite, process time will range b/w
15 & 25Hrs
 Heating alloy just above A1 line and
then either cooling very slowly in the
furnace or holding at a Temp just
below A1
 Heating & cooling alternatively
within ±50C of the A1 line.
Spheroidizing - Purpose
 The aim is to produce a soft structure by changing all hard
micro-constituents like pearlite, bainite, and martensite
(especially in steels with carbon contents above 0.5% and in
tool steels) into a structure of spheroidized carbides in a ferritic
matrix
(a) a medium-carbon low-alloy steel after soft annealing at 720C;

(b) a high-speed steel soft annealed at 820C.
Spheroidizing - Uses
 Such a soft structure is required for good

machinability of steels having more than 0.6%C
and for all cold-working processes that include
plastic deformation.
 Spheroidite steel is the softest and most
ductile form of steel
5. Isothermal Annealing
 Spheroidizing is more useful for improving machinability of
high C steel than that of low and medium C steels.
 In fact, spherodized low and medium C steels become over
soft for machining and give long shavings which accumulate on
tool cutting edge and produce poor surface.
 Hypoeutectoid low-carbon steels as well as medium-carbon
structural steels are often isothermally annealed, for best
machinability
 An isothermally annealed structure should have the following
characteristics:
1. High proportion of ferrite
2. Uniformly distributed pearlite grains
3. Fine lamellar pearlite grains
Process – Isothermal Annealing
 Austenitizing followed
by a fast cooling to the
temperature range of
pearlite formation
(usually about 650˚C.) ?
 Holding at this
temperature until the
complete
transformation of
pearlite 
 and cooling to room
temperature at an
arbitrary cooling rate

Fe3C

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4 - Heat Treatment

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Heat Treatment

- In the heat treatment of metals, quenching or rapid

 Higher temperatures and

• machinability of low-c steels

when material needs to be

- Spheroidite can form 

time needed drastically increases,

(a) a medium-carbon low-alloy steel after soft annealing at 720C;

 Such a soft structure is required for good

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