CHAPTER 5

Metallurgy, Properties, and Uses of Ferrous Metals and Alloys-II

 Impurities in Steel and Their Effects
 Elements cease to be impurities and become alloying
elements when their amounts will be as high as 14 to 60 %.
 Impurities present in plain carbon steels:
 Sulfur (0.02 to 0.05 %)
Red shortness- steel becomes brittle and unworkable at high
temperatures, happens when sulfur combines with iron to
form iron sulfide.
 Phosphorus (0.02 to 0.05 %)
Phosphorus- the most undesirable of all elements found in
steels; produces cold shortness(steel is brittle at room
temperature and cannot be cold-worked).
 Silicon (0.05 to 0.2 %)
Silicon’s effect is very slight. Increasing silicon content raises
the elastic limit and ultimate strength of steel without
reducing ductility very greatly. Excessive amount of these
causes steel to become weak and brittle.
 Manganese (0.3 to 1.5 %)
Presence of manganese increases strength of steel, but if limit
Properties and Uses of Steel
 Equilibrium Diagram of Iron and Iron
Carbide
• The mechanical properties of alloy depend upon the
properties of these phase or phases of which the alloy is
composed and upon the manner in which the several
phases are associated.
• Reference is usually made to the iron and iron carbide
system rather than the iron and carbon system, because
under equilibrium conditions, carbon is always in the form
of iron carbide (6.67% C), commonly called cementite, and
not of free carbon.
 Allotropic Forms of Iron

• Alpha iron (@ room temperature to 1670 F/910 C)- space-

lattice is body-centered; magnetic up to 1420 F, above this
temperature alpha iron is paramagnetic.
• Gamma iron (1670 F/910 C and 2535 F/1390 C)- face-
centered cubic space-lattice and is paramagnetic.
• Delta iron (2535 F/1390 C and up to melting point @ 2795
F/1535 C)- body-centered cubic.
 Solid Solutions of Carbon in Iron

 Maximum solubility of carbon in:

 Alpha iron- attained @ 1333 F(723 C), with 0.03 % carbon,
called ferrite.
 Gamma iron- occurs @ 2065 F(1130 C), with 1.7 % carbon,
called austenite.
 Delta iron- attained @ 2715 F(1490 C), with 0.10 % carbon,
designated as delta solid solution.
 Eutectic and Eutectoid of Iron and Iron
Carbide
• Eutectoid- an intimate mechanical mixture of two or more
phases having a definite composition and a definite
temperature of transformation within the solid state.
• The formation of a eutectoid involves the formation of a
mechanical mixture of two phases from a solid solution.
• The eutectoid of the iron-iron carbide system contain 0.83
% carbon and forms on cooling, under equilibrium
conditions, @ 1333 F(723 C). this eutectoid is composed of
an intimate mechanical mixture of ferrite and iron carbide
in lamellar combinations. This eutectoid has been given the
name pearlite.
 Transformation in the Range 0 to 1.7
Per Cent Carbon
• Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon in which the carbon contents does not
exceed 1.7 %.
• Alloys of the iron-iron carbide system containing less than 1.7 % carbon
will never have any phases that are derived from the eutectic.
• Proeutectoid- any phase that precipitates prior to the formation of the
eutectoid.
• Alloys containing less than 0.83 % carbon will contain proeutectoid ferrite.
• Alloys containing more than 0.83 % carbon will contain proeutectoid
cementite.
• Hypoeutectoid steels- steels containing less than 0.83 % carbon.
• Eutectoid steel- steels containing 0.83 % carbon.
• Hypereutectoid steels- steels containing more than 0.83 % carbon.
• Under conditions of slow cooling, maximum strength occurs at
approximately eutectoid composition. Furthermore, the ductility as
reflected by reduction of area and percent elongation decreases with an
increasing amount of cementite.
 Heat Treatment of Steels
• Heat treatment is the alteration of the mechanical
properties of an alloy through the control of thermal effects.
• The temperatures on the equilibrium diagram at which a
transformation takes place are called critical points or
critical temperatures.
• Critical temperatures are found to be affected by the rate of
heating or cooling. The greater the rate of heating or
cooling, the greater will the temperature deviate from the
equilibrium critical temperature.
• With very rapid cooling, the transformation occurs at low
temperature and the resulting structure is known as
martensite. Can be compared with the structure of
pearlite only that martensite possesses an acicular
structure whereas pearlite possesses a lamellar structure.
• It should be remembered that as the carbon content
increases, the ductility of the steel decreases and therefore
in machine parts where relatively good ductility is required,
the carbon content should not be too high.
• For proper hardening, steel must be in the austenitic
condition prior to quenching. To effect this condition, the
 Isothermal Transformation

• 1333 F- the equilibrium temperature of transformation of austenite to

pearlite.
• An isothermal transformation study is made by instantaneously
cooling a small sample of the steel from the austenite state to a
particular sub-critical temperature. Specimens cooled in this manner
are held at the constant sub-critical temperature for different lengths
of time. After the elapse of each time interval, the specimen is cooled
instantaneously to room temperature. An examination of the structure
indicates what proportion of the austenite transformed to the new
structure. The percentage transformation is then plotted to a series of
isothermal transformation temperatures. This gives an isothermal
transformation diagram or a time-temperature-transformation (TTT)
diagram.
• Bainite- a finer dispersion of ferrite and cementite that appears more
acicular in character than lamellar.
• Martensite- solid solution of carbon in body-centered tetragonal iron.
 Hardenability

• Hardenability- the ability of a steel to be hardened through

to its center in large sections.
• The hardenability of steels may be compared by quenching
bars of different diameters and determining, for particular
quench, that diameter bar will just completely harden
through to the center.
 Tempering of Steel

• Tempering of steel is the process of heating a hardened

steel to any temperature belo the loer critical temperature,
followed by any desired rate of cooling.
• Spheroidizing- the process where a steel is tempered for a
long time at a temperature just under the Ac1 point, the iron
carbide will completely agglomerate to form spheres.
• Distempering- a treatment where a steel with sufficient
hardenability may be treated isothermally to produce the
desired properties. This eliminates the need of tempering
after the quenching operation. This is applicable only to
steels of sufficient hardenability or for pieces of steel of
relatively small thickness.
• Martempering- the steel is quenched from a temperature
above the critical to a temperature below the knee of the
TTT diagram at which there is an appreciable time before
transformation will begin.
 Annealing and Normalizing of Steel

• Annealing of steel is the process of heating to just above

the upper critical temperature, followed by very slow
cooling.
• In some cases, grain refinement without maximum softness
is desired, or one may wish to reduce the extent of
segregation in a cast material. In these cases, the steel
may be heated to any temperature above the upper critical
temperature, followed by cooling in still air. This treatment
is referred to as normalizing.
 Casehardening of Steel

 Casehardening is the application of any process whereby the

surface of the steel is altered so that it will become hard.
 The methods of casehardening steel is divided into two general
classes:
 The first class includes those processes by which the
composition of the steel is changed to a small depth below the
surface by the diffusion of some element or elements into the
steel from the outside as by carburizing, nitriding,
carbonitriding, and cyaniding.
 The second class includes those processes by which the
surface of the steel is locally heated by high-frequency currents
or by a flame to a temperature above the transformation
temperature and then quenched.
 Carburizing

 Caburizing is a casehardening process by which the carbon

content of the steel near the surface of a part is increased.
 The hardening is obtained by heat treatment after
carburizing.
 The increase of carbon content of the steel can be
accomplished by this methods:
 Solid carburizing
 Liquid caburizing
 Gas carburizing
 Nitriding
 Nitriding is another method of casehardening involving
diffusion, in which the steel to be casehardened is
machined, heat-treated, placed in an air-tight box, and
heated to about 1000 F.
 Several limitations of nitriding:
 An expensive special alloy such as nitralloy is used.
 The manipulation of the process must be done with great
care and requires a skilled operator.
 The support in the boxes are difficult because the gases
must reach all parts to be nitride.
 It is necessary to anneal the steel before nitriding to
remove all strains.
 No machining can be done after the steel has been nitride,
except grinding.
 Carbonitriding- a process where steels are carburized and
nitride simultaneously. This process is used for cases
 Cyaniding of Steel

• Cyaniding is another casehardening treatment involving the

process of diffusion.
• Cyaniding I, to a certain degree, a carbonitriding process
but in carbonitriding, the depth of case obtained is deeper
than that obtained with the cyaniding process.
 Flame Hardening

• Flame hardening is a process of producing a hard surface in

a steel having a sufficiently high carbon content to respond
to hardening by rapid cooling of the surface.
• This process does not involve a change in chemical
composition of the surface of the steel.
 Induction Hardening

• Induction hardening- in tis process, the steel surface to be

hardened is surrounded by a coilattached to a high-
frequency AC source.
• Induction hardening has found very great use as a
production method of surface hardening. It has been
utilized in the automotive field in the hardening of crank
bearing surfaces, the hardening of bushings and so on.
 Cast Iron

• Cast iron- alloys containing more than 1.7 % carbon.

• White cast iron- alloys of carbon and iron which contain
more than 1.7 % carbon.
 Malleable Cast Iron

• A cast iron that possesses the tough characteristics typical

of pure iron.
• The malleablizing treatment removes all traces of iron
carbide leaving tiny grains of ferrite mixed with temper
carbon(nodules of graphite).
• The structure gives the material a tensile strength of about
53,000 lb/in2, a yield point of about 36,000 lb/in2. And an
elongation of about 1 % in 2in.
 Gray Cast Iron

 Graphitic carbon- graphite in the form of flakes.

 Gray cast iron- an iron-carbon alloy consisting of a structure
of flakes of graphite embedded in a matrix of steel.
 Carbon content varies from 1.7% to 3.5%
 Used chiefly for parts that are not subjected to severe
tensile stress.
 Tensile strength varies from 20,000 lb/in2 to 50,000 lb/in2.
 Ductile Cast iron

 This is produced by ladle addition of magnesium in the form

of nickel-magnesium alloy, or in some cases by the use of
other elements.
 Also called nodular cast iron.
 Has many properties similar to steel but is less costly to
produce than steel.
 Ductile cast iron finds considerable use for castings,
requiring lower porosity, for equipment used to conduct
fluids, and for machinery parts which require a fair degree
of toughness with high yield strength. its machinability
seems to be about similar to that of gray cast iron and
produces a better machined surface.