JUBAIL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Department of Mechanical Engineering ME 202 MATERIALS SCIENCE Lab Notes on Experiment: Heat treatment of Steels TITLE: Heat treatment of Steels JECTIVI 1. Familiarization with the procedure and types of heat treatment EQUIPMENT & MATERIAL, @ (b) © (a) ) wo @ (h) w @ (k) a (m) of steels Familiarization with influence of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of steels Familiarization with the Fe-FeC equilibrium phase diagram and the Isothermal Transformation (ITT) diagrams for steels Abrasive cutter. Mounting press Phenolic powder Grinding dises. Sand papers (grade 240, 500, 800, 1200). Polishing pad and polishing powder. Etchant. Metallurgical microscope. Heat treatment furnace Steel Test Specime Tong, goggles and gloves. Quenching media (2 liters water, S00gr NaCl, Hliter ice). Rockwell hardness testerBackground Pure iron is not suitable for use as a structural material. It is weak, soft, is very ductile and does not respond to heat treatment to any appreciable degree. Steel, which is basically iron alloyed with carbon and a few percent to a few tens of percent of other alloying elements, can be heat treated to a wide range of strengths, toughness and ductility. Carbon is the most important of these alloying elements in terms of the mechanical properties of steel and most heat treatments of steel are based primarily on controlling the distribution of carbon, Alloying provides the basis for the heat treatability of steel. While iron is the chief element in steel, carbon is the most important alloying element in terms of its sirengthening effect on iron. Small amounts of carbon increasing to as high as 0.80 - 0.90 w%, steadily increase its strength and hardness. Up to 4.5 w% carbon can be present in plain carbon steels, but the strength and formability deteriorate and it assumes the characteristics of cast irons. Nitrogen is often used to provide the similar strengthening, usually for case hardening (nitriding) while relatively high concentrations of sulfur and phosphorus can improve the machinability of steel. However, sulfur can lead to "hot shoriness” during hot forming so small amounts of manganese is often added to scavenge deleterious sulfur impurities from the grain boundaries where it can also contribute to intergranular failure, Small amounts of silicon are usually present. Silicon increases the hardness of ferrite, increases oxidation resistance and is an effective deoxidizer. It is almost universally present in magnet sheet. Aluminum is another strong deoxidizer and is also very effective at refining grain size. In steels with relatively high carbon contents, Cr, Mo, W and V all can form carbides which can both increase the creep resistance of the steel and, when the carbides are present in sufficient quantities and as large particles, the steel may be suitable for use as a cutting tool. There are many other elements that are alloyed with iron to tailor its properties and enhance heat treatability. Aside from the hardening achieved by adding carbon, the most important effect alloying elements can have is improving the hardenability of steel. The heat treatment is the most important operation performed on work material to enhance its physical and mechanical properties. Heat treatment involves subjecting the material to a series of heating and cooling cycles to control its microstructure, which in turn affects mechanical properties. It is because of heat treatment that plain carbon steel can be used in a wide range of application. For example plain carbon steel can be heat treated into hard and britile material that can cut other material. On the other it can also be heat treated into tough and less brittle material that can be used for structural application, There are many different heat treatments (Figure 1), which include: Hardening: Hardening involves heating the steel to a temperature higher than Ay temperature by 50°C using a furnace (Figure 2) for certain duration of time (soaking), which depends on the size of the part, Finally, the steel part is quenched using quenching media, which include ice water, brine or oil At room temperature, stecls may have a structure of ferrite (BCC) and pearlite (ferrite cementite Fe;C) structure, When steel is heated above A; temperature it transforms to austenite (FCC) structure. After quenching, the high cooling rate suppresses the equilibrium transformation to ferrite and pearlite at room temperature and a non-equilibrium phase called martensite is formed (Figure 3). This new phase has body centered tetragonal structure, which ishard and brittle and increase the strength of steels. In order to reduce the brittleness in the martensite, quenched steels are reheating to reduce the level of residual stresses (tempering). This reduces the brittleness and increases the toughness in the hardened steel. The tempering temperature used is determined by the mechanical properties required, Annealing: Annealing is another form of heat treatment that results in softening of steel and improves its machinability, Annealing involves heating and soaking as mentioned before in the hardening and cooling very slowly to room temperature inside the fumace, The annealed structure normall contains coarse grains of ferrite and pearlite Normalizing: Normalizing involves heating and soaking as mentioned before and cooling to room temperature in still air. The normalized structure normally contains uniform fine grains of ferrite and pearlite. Normalizing in steels is used to improve the quality of machined steel surface. ‘austenite + cementite cementite + pearlite : Tareon wd = ferrite + pearlite ypes of heat treatment of SteelsTemperature (*C) Figure 2 - Heat treatment furnace T T T T T is Eutectoid temperature {1400 1200 1000 ‘800 400 200 0) lot x 10 10? 10108 Time (3) Figure 3 - Formation of Martensite TemperatureSafety Considerations This experiment involves heat treating of steel samples. Extreme care should be exercised during the heat treating phase of the experiment as the temperatures are quite high (925°C) and therefore poses severe burn hazards to personnel and fire hazards to the building. Safety considerations explained in a previous assignment involving abrasive cutting, mounting, grinding, polishing and etching should be also observed here. tment of Steels | Assignment EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES: Heat tr 1. _ | Take three steel bars (50 mm long x 8 mm dia.) 2, _| Using tongs, gloves and goggles, place steel specimens in heated furnace (925°C) and soak for 90 min. for full austenization. 43, _ | Subsequently, use tongs, gloves and goggles and remove one bar from the furnace and place in the quenching media (2 liters water, 500gr NaCl, iter ice) to harden. 4, | Use tongs, gloves and goggles and remove the second bar fiom the furnace and place in air outside the furnace to normalize. Switch the furnace off and leave the third bar to anneal inside the furnace by cool | slowly and to room temperature. Prepare samples in the annealed, normalized and tempered conditions for microstructure 6. | examination following the steps used in a previous assignment including abrasive cutting, mounting, grinding, polishing and etching. 7,__| Examine the microstructure in the annealed, normalized and tempered conditions using the optical microscope. | Sketch the microstructure in the annealed, normalized and tempered conditions using different magnifications ‘Compare the microstructure in the annealed, normalized and tempered conditions with 9. | the microstructure of the as-received specimen of the same stee! bar material examined in a previous assignment. Measure the hardness in the annealed, normalized and tempered conditions using the 10. | Rockwell hardness tester and compare with the hardness of the as-received specimen of the same steel bar material used in a previous assignment.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: As we discuss the heat treatment on the steel, we see the different between the three methods of it are Annealing, Normalizing, Hardening (Quenched). And the different comes with how we cool the steel after we apply the heat on it: A, Annealing is a method of heat treatment that can change the structure of the metal, it is done by putting the sample in the oven that is 925°C and remain there until the heat inside the sample reach the heat of its surface and kept the sample holding (soaking) for a certain time until it is cooling very slowly at room temperature inside the oven after it is turned off. Also Annealing is used to relieve stresses, increase ductility and modify the microstructure. The annealed structure normally contains coarse grains of ferrite and pearlite as. B. Normalizing is another method of heat treatment that can change the structure of the metal , it is done by putting the sample inthe oven that is 925°C and remain there until the heat inside the sample reach the heat of its surface and kept the sample holding (soaking) for a certain time but the cooling in this method is different from the other methods it is cooling to room temperature in still air , the target of the normalizing heat treatment is to improve the mechanical properties of the material by refining the microstructure . Also, the Normalizing is a simple heat treatment obtained by austenitizing and air cooling to produce a fine pearlite structure also as we see the grains are taking the medium size between the three structures. C. Hardening is another method of heat treatment that can change the structure of the metal, it is done by putting the sample in the oven that is 925°C and remain there until the heat inside the sample reach the heat of its surface and kept the sample holding (soaking) for a certain time but the cooling in this method is also different from the other methods , It is done by quenching the specimen using quenching tools, which include ice water, brine or oilThe using of this treatment will lead to a change in the mechanical properties, as well as a rise in the degree of toughness, resulting in a stronger, more robust component. This new phase has body centered tetragonal structure, Also, the grains are taking the biggest size between the three structures.‘Quenched 1000x Normalized 1000x