Lect.

5: Heat Treating of Carbon Steels1, 2

Topics: 1. Carbon Steels 2. What are Carbon Steels? 3. Mechanical Behavior Carbon Steels 4. Free-Machining Carbon Steels 5. Classification of Heat Treatment 6. Recommended Heat treating Practice 7. Martensitic Structures 1. Carbon Steels Carbon steels consists basically of carbon and iron; in addition to some impurities such as Mn, Si, P, and S Compositions of carbon steel were developed and standardized by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) AISI and SAE established the Unified Numbering system (UNS), which starts by a single letter prefix followed by five numerals Example: letter G indicates standard grades, letter H indicates meeting certain hardenability limit The first four digits refer to the AISI-SAE designations, while the last digit denotes some additional composition, such as lead or boron 2. What Are Carbon Steels? AISI considered a steel to be a carbon steel when: 1. No min. content is specified 2. Min. for Cu does not exceed 0.40 wt% 3. Max. specified limits Mn 1.65%, Si 0.60%, and Cu 0.60% Plain Carbon Steels Plain carbon steel has a common code by AISI specifying its chemical composition The code consists of four digits; the first two indicate the general steel type, the next two indicate the mean carbon content Example AISI 1040 steel: the digits 10 indicate a plain carbon steel with Mn 1.0 % and the next two digits, 40, indicate the mean carbon content as 0.4% (Table 1) The 10XX means that it is a plain carbon steel with a carbon content of 0.XX % _________________________________________________________________________________ 1 Practical Heat Treating, J. L. Dossett and H. E. Boyer, 2nd Ed., Mat. Park, OH, USA: ASM Intl, 2006 2 Fundamentals of Materials Science and Engineering, W.D. Callister, Jr., 5th Ed., John Wiley, 2001
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Table 1. Standard Types of Carbon and alloy Steels

Table 2, p 93, lists different plain carbon steels, which have a very low hardenability since they did not carry the H suffix and Mn 1.0 %, while steels with Mn 1.0% are listed in Table 3, p 94 Higher Mn C-Steels Higher Mn steels are classified as 15XX series The digits 15 denote higher Mn (up to 0.65%) In C-steels, there is a permissible range and limit for each element Mn, P, and S appear in every commercial steel as residual or alloying elements P, S, and Si are useful in special applications Carbon H-Steels Table 4 lists two 10XX and four 15XX steels which are considered H-grades Steel is considered alloy steel when Mn 1.65% Table 4. Standard Carbon H- and Boron H-Steels

The effect of Mn on hardenability is shown in Fig. 1 Maximum hardness at the quenched end of the end-quench bar approaches 60RHC

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Boron-Treated Carbon Steels Born is added to steel in very small amount (0.0005-0.003%) to increase hardenability Carbon steels containing boron are identified by letter B inserted between second and third digits of AISI number Example: boron treated 1541 steel is written as 15B41

Figure 1 Effect of composition on hardenability. (a) Low hardenability of 1038H steel. (b) Effect of Mn on hardenability of 1541H steel. (c) Effect of Mn and B on hardenability of 15B41H steel.
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3. Mechanical Behavior Carbon Steels Mechanical properties are controlled by the microstructure developed during formation The microstructure developed consists of different phases; mainly, pearlite, bainite, and martensite All phases, but martensite, consist of ferrite and cementite, which is a very hard phase The shape of cementite identify the phase; i.e., fine and coarse pearlite and spheroidite Increasing carbon content would increase the amount of cementite phase formed, which results in a corresponding increase in steel strength, as shown in Fig. 2

Figure 2 Strength properties vs. carbon content of plain carbon steels of fine pearlite microstructure: (a) Strength and Brinell hardness (b) Ductility. Callister

The hardness and ductility as a function of carbon concentration for plain carbon steels having fine and coarse pearlite as well as spheroidite microstructures are shown in Fig. 3

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Figure 3 Effect of carbon content of plain carbon steels on: (a) Hardness, Brinell and Rockwell and (b) Ductility (%RA). Callister

4. Free-Machining Carbon Steels Free-machining carbon steels contains controlled amounts of S and P Two different series of free-machining carbon steels; AISI 11XX and 12XX AISI 11XX refers to resulfurized steels with carbon content of 0.08-0.13% (Table 5, p 99) The second series AISI 12XX refers to rephosphorized and resulfurized steels with low carbon content (0.15% max.) Max. Mn content is lower compared with 11XX 12XX series has better machinabilty than 11XX Compositions of 12XX series are presented in Table 6 Table 6. Composition of Standard Rephosphorized and Resulfurized Carbon Steels

The last composition shown in Table 6 contains lead as indicated by the letter L
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Effect of Free-Machining Additives on Properties and Heat Treating Procedures Free-machining additives are not beneficial to mechanical properties Effects of sulfur Fig. 4 shows the microstructure of a specimen of 1110 steel (see Table 5) Sulfur combines with Fe and/or Mn forming obvious inclusions Inclusions have no strength, as each one creates tiny voids Sulfur has a min. effect on heat treatment

Figure 4 Manganese sulfide inclusions in resulfurized free-machining steel. 500X.

Effects of phosphorus Phosphorus has similar effects as sulfur The Effect on mechanical properties is minimal The effect on heat treating procedures is nil Effects of lead Lead (Pb) is added to carbon- and alloy steels to improve machiniability Leaded steels are produced by adding fine lead shot to a stream of molten steel Free-machining carbon steels should not be considered for cold forming applications Free-machining steels easily split during forging

5. Classification for Heat Treatment Steels are classified according to carbon content into three groups: A) Group I: 0.08-0.25 wt% C, B) Group II: 0.30-0.50 wt% C, C) Group III: 0.55-0.95 wt% C A. Group I (0.08 to 0.25 wt% C) Three types of heat treatment are used: 1. Process treating of material to prepare it for subsequent operations 2. Treating of finished parts to improve mechanical properties 3. Case hardening by carburizing or carbonitriding develops a hard, wear-resistant surface

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 Anneal drawn products between operations is necessary to relieve work strains, Fig. 5

Figure 5 Microstructure of 1080 steel. (a) After slight cold reduction. (b) Same steel but after a 60% cold reduction. (c) Same steel but after process annealing at 595oC.

B. Group II (0.30 to 0.50 wt% C) Hardenabilty varies over a wide range from water hardening to oil hardening Hardenabilty is very sensitive to changes in composition Medium-carbon steels should be either normalized or annealed before hardening to obtain best mechanical properties Water is the Most commonly used quenching medium Medium-carbon steels are readily case hardened by flame or induction hardening C. Group III (0.55 to 0.95 wt% C) Forged parts made of these steels are annealed to refine structure and produce highquality and hardened products Austempering is commonly used for these steels

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6. Recommended Heat Treating Practice for Carbon Steels Common heat treatments; such as full annealing, normalizing, quenching, and tempering, are performed to tailor the microstructure to desired mechanical properties (Fig. 6)

Figure 6 Heat treating temperature ranges for plain carbon steel. Callister

Full annealing Heat to between 15 and 40C above the A3 line (if the concentration of carbon is less than the eutectoid) or above the A1 line (if the concentration of carbon is greater than the eutectoid) until the alloy comes to equilibrium; then furnace cool to room temperature. The final microstructure is coarse pearlite. Normalizing Heat to between 55 and 85C above the upper critical temperature until the specimen has fully transformed to austenite, then cool in air. The final microstructure is fine pearlite. Quenching Heat to a temperature within the austenite phase region and allow the specimen to fully austenitize, then quench to room temperature in oil or water. The final microstructure is martensite. Tempering Heat a quenched (martensitic) specimen, to a temperature between 450 and 650C, for the time necessary to achieve the desired hardness. The final microstructure is tempered martensite. After hardening, the steel hardness can be adjusted by tempering (Fig. 7 for 10XX series)

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Figure 7 Tempering curves for several 10XX series of different carbon contents. Heat treating processes are targeted to required mechanical properties, which in turn are controlled by the microstructure developed Isothermal transformation diagrams are very useful in determining the microstructure required Fig. 8 shows a complete TTT diagrams for 0.8% carbon steel

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Figure 8 Complete isothermal transformation diagram for 0.8% carbon steel. All transformation products are named. If austenite is rapidly cooled from above A1 past the nose and to temperature below 275oC, Ms, martensite starts to form. As long as cooling continues, more martensite forms. Transformation of austenite to martensite is not complete until Mf is reached Bainite takes place between 275 and 525oC. It is ideal to attain a 100% martensitic microstructure from the quench It is impossible to obtain 100% martensite in carbon steel except for very thin sections

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 Tempering curves of higher carbon grades; 11XX and 15XX are shown in Fig. 9

Figure 9 Tempering for 11XX and 15XX series

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7. Tempering and Austempering Tempering of Quenched Carbon Steels All parts made from carbon steels should be tempered immediately after cooling to RT The need for tempering increases as the amount of martensite formed increases Martensite is formed when carbon atoms are trapped in the iron lattice When high-carbon martensite is formed, the iron lattice has a tetragonal shape instead of cubic This bct lattice is metastable and extremely brittle (fragile) The change from tetragonal to cubic martensite can be accomplished quickly by heating to 85 oC The standard min. tempering T= 150 oC, where hardness does not change appreciably The hardness for all carbon steels grades drops gradually with tempering This behavior results from the gradual decomposition of martensite as T increases Tempering temperature should preferably be slightly higher than service temperature

Austempering of Steel Austempering is heating below that of pearlite formation Austempering process is carried in the following steps, using Fig. 8: Heat within the Austenitizing range ( 790-870 oC) Quench in a bath maintained in the range 260-400 oC Allow to complete isothermal transformation to bainite in this bath Cool to RT, usually in air The difference between austempering and conventional quenching and tempering is shown in Fig. 10

Figure 10 Comparison of time-temperature-transformation cycles for conventional quenching and tempering and for austempering.

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 Austempered parts have greater toughness at the same hardness level than quenched and tempered parts. it also reduces distortion, which needs extra machining time and cost In addition, the overall cycle time is shorter which saves energy and capital investment Quenching medium Molten salt is the most commonly used in austempering because: 1. It transfers heat rapidly 2. It eliminates vapor phase barrier during initial stage of quenching 3. Its viscosity is uniform 4. Its viscosity is low at austempering temperature 5. It remain stable at operating temperature and is soluble in water 6. Salt is easily removed by washed water Selection of Steel Grade for austempering Selection of steel is based on transformation characteristics as indicated by TTT diagrams Three important considerations are: 1. Location of nose and time available for bypassing it 2. The time required for complete transformation 3. The location of Ms temperature Alloy steels are better suited for austempering as they have greater hardenability Application of austempering This process is substituted for conventional quenching and tempering for two reasons: 1. To obtain improved mechanical properties; esp. higher ductility or notch toughness 2. To decrease the probability of cracking and distortion Austempering requires only two steps: austenitizing and isothermal transformation Austempering are used for parts fabricated from bars of small diameter or from sheet or strip of small cross section Austempering is particularly applicable to thin-section carbon steel parts requiring exceptional toughness at a hardness near 50 HRC

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