Heat Treatment and Processing (MM334)

Topic:
Tempering of Martensite

Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat

Faculty of Materials and Chemical Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
GIK Institute of Engineering Sciences And Technology, Pakistan
Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 2
Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 3
 Tempering

❑Steels can be heat treated to high hardness and strength levels.

❑The reasons for doing this are obvious:

❑ Structural components subjected to high operating stress need the high strength of a hardened structure.
❑ Tools such as dies, knives, cutting devices, and forming devices need a hardened structure to resist wear
and deformation.

❑As-quenched hardened steels are so brittle that even slight impacts may cause
fracture. Tempering is a heat treatment that reduces the brittleness of a steel
without significantly lowering its hardness and strength. All (medium/high C-
steel) hardened steels must be tempered before use.

Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 4

Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 5
 Tempering
❑Tempering consists of heating a hardened steel to a temperature below
eutectoid temperature and keeping it at that temperature for a specified time to
reduce brittleness followed by air cooling.

❑The aim of tempering is to decrease brittleness of hardened steel.

❑The steel, after hardening, contains martensite which is acicular and is very
brittle. It can not be used as such. Hence it is essential to temper it to make it
less brittle.

❑During tempering, the martensite hardness may also get reduced to some
extent; however, ductility and toughness increase.
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Complete Process
• Austenitizing: Heating the steels to
high enough temperature until they
convert at least partial austenite, i.e.,
727 oC.

• Quenching: Rapid cooling in brine

(salt water), fresh water, oil etc. media.

• Tempering: Reheat to below 727 oC

(200-550 oC).

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Understanding Complete Process From
TTT diagram

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Changes during Tempering
❑ Martensite is a meta stable phase; the equilibrium phases are
ferrite and cementite.

❑ During tempering, martensite changes to low carbon

martensite and then to equilibrium phases (ferrite and
Cementite) resulting in reduction of brittleness.

❑ The internal stresses may also get reduced making steel less
brittle.
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 Plain Carbon (1080) steel

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Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 11
Effect of tempering temperature on the properties of eutectoid steel
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 ❑The overlapping changes ,which occur when high
Tempered carbon martensite is tempered are divided into
four stages:
Martensite-
❑First Stage
Stages
❑Second Stage

❑Third Stage

❑Fourth Stage or secondary stage

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 First Stage (50-200 oC)
• Martensite breaks down to low carbon martensite and
transition
• precipitate known as ε-carbide (Fe2.4C) across twins
Second Stage (205- 305 oC)
Tempered • Decomposition of retained austenite to bainite and decrease
in hardness
Martensite Third Stage (250- 500 oC)
-Stages • Conversion of the aggregate of low carbon martensite and ε-
carbide into ferrite and cementite, which gradually coarsens
to give visible particles and rapid softening.
Fourth Stage or secondary stage
• Secondary hardening
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 In some steels, the hardness increases instead
of decreasing during tempering. This is known
as secondary hardening.

Fourth
It occurs due to precipitation of alloy carbides.
Stage or
secondary Steels containing carbide forming alloying
elements show secondary hardening.
stage
It occurs during fourth stage of tempering.

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Fourth Stage or secondary stage
❑Secondary hardening occurs during fourth stage of tempering (400-700 oC)

❑Carbide changes in alloy steel at 400-700 oC. In steels containing one

alloying addition, cementite forms first and the alloy diffuses to it. When
sufficiently enriched, the Fe3C transforms to an alloy carbide.

❑After further enrichment, this carbide may be superseded by another, and this
formation of transition carbides may be repeated several times before the
equilibrium carbide forms. In chromium steel, changes are:
Fe3C→Cr7C3→Cr23C6
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Fourth Stage or secondary stage
• Steels containing W, Cr, V etc. show secondary hardening.

• High speed steel containing 18% W, 4% Cr and 1% V show secondary

hardening.

• High speed steels are used as tool steels. During machining, the
temperature of the tool tip increases causing softening in other steels.
But High-Speed Steels retain their hardness for a longer time due to
secondary hardening and therefore can be used for longer time.

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Fourth Stage or secondary stage
❑ In steels containing several carbide-forming elements the reactions
are often more complex, and the carbides which decompose are not
necessarily followed by carbides based on the same alloy elements.

❑The transformation can also occur in situ by gradual exchange of

atoms without any appreciable hardening; or by re-solution of existing
iron carbides and fresh nucleation of coherent carbide with
considerable hardening that counteracts the normal softening that
occurs during tempering.

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Fourth Stage or secondary stage
❑In some alloy steels, the hardness is maintained constant up to about 500 °C or in some
cases it rises to a peak followed by a gradual drop due to breakdown of coherence and
coalescence of the carbide particles.

❑This age hardening process is known as secondary hardening and it enhances high
temperature creep properties of steel.

❑Chromium, for example, seems to stabilize the size of the cementite particles over a
range 200-500 °C.

❑Vanadium and molybdenum form a fine dispersion of coherent precipitates (V4C3Mo2C)

in a ferrite matrix with considerable hardening.

❑When over-ageing starts the V4C3 grows in the grain boundaries and forms a
Widmanstätten pattern of plates within the grain

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Fourth Stage or secondary stage

Widmanstätten pattern

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Fourth Stage or secondary stage

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 Scanning electron microscopy (SEM)
micrograph of the studied steel after heat
treatment. Etching has dissolved the tempered
martensitic matrix preferentially. Intralath
carbides and interlath retained austenite thus
appear in clear contrast. A martensite block is
also highlighted.
Dr. Mohsin Ali Marwat | FMCE | GIK Institute | Pakistan 22