HEAT TREATMENT

OF METALS
Mr. T. D. I. Udayanga
Lecturer
Department of engineering technology
2 Outline

 Background of heat treatment

 Furnaces
 Constituents of Iron and Steel
 Iron – Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
 Normalizing
 Annealing
 Hardening
 Tempering

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3 Heat Treatment
 Heat treatment is a heating and cooling process of a metal or an alloy in the solid
state with the purpose of changing their properties.
 Mainly, this process is performed on ferrous metals especially for various kinds of
steels to obtain special properties in them such as,
 Softness
 Hardness
 Tensile Strength
 Toughness
 Heat Treatment consists of three main phases
 Heating of the metal
 Soaking of the metal
 Cooling of the metal
 The theory of heat treatment is based on the fact that a change takes place in the
internal structure of metal by heating and cooling which induces desired properties
in it.

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4 Heat Treatment Furnaces
Heat Stationary Type
Direct Full Fired

Treatment Hearth Indirect Fuel Fired

Multiple

Furnaces Furnaces Re-circulation

Car bottom type
Movable Type
Rotary type

Liquid bath type

Bath
Salt bath type
Furnaces
Lead bath type
Oil bath type

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 Constituents of Iron and Steel
5
 Five main constituents of steel can be identified when observing their micro
structures,
 Ferrite
 Cementite
 Austenite
 Pearlite
 Martensite
 Ferrite
 Contains very little or no carbon in iron
 It is soft and ductile and imparts these properties to the steel
Micro Structure of
Mild Steel  Cementite
 A compound of iron and carbon, iron carbide (Fe3C)
 It is hard and brittle and its presence in steels causes an increase in hardness and a
reduction in ductility and toughness

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 6 Constituents of Iron and Steel cont.…

 Austenite
 At higher temperatures, structure of the steel changes into austenite.
 It is a hard, ductile and non-magnetic material.

 Pearlite
 It is a laminated structure formed of alternate layers of ferrite and cementite.
 Pearlite is relatively strong, hard and ductile

Micro Structure of  Hard steels are mixtures of pearlite and cementite while soft steels are mixtures of
ferrite and pearlite
Pearlitic Steel
 Martensite
 It is a very hard needle-like structure of iron and carbon

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7 Allotropy of Iron

 Following allotropic changes occurs when iron is

cooled from molten condition to the solid state,
 First changing occurs at l539°C at which formation of
delta iron starts.
 Second changing takes place at 1404°C and where
delta iron starts changes into gamma iron or austenite
(FCC structure).
 Third changing occurs at 910°C and where gamma iron
(FCC structure) starts changes into beta iron (BCC
structure) in form of ferrite, leadaburite and austenite.
 Fourth changing takes place at 768°C and where beta
iron (BCC structure) starts changes into alpha iron in form
of ferrite, pearlite and cementite.

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 Iron – Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
8

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 Iron – Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
9 cont.…
 Line ABCD
 Above this line melting has been completed
 Below this and above line AHJECF, the metal is partially solid and partially liquid.
 Solid metal is known as austenite
 Melting temperature will vary with carbon content
 Line AHJECF
 Metal starts melting from this line
 Below this line and above line GSEC, the metal is in solid form and having austenite structure
 It is not a horizontal line because melting temperature vary with the Carbon content
 Line PSK
 Occurs near 723 0C
 It’s a horizontal line and known as lower critical temperature line
 Transformation of steel starts at this line
 Carbon content does not affect the lower critical temperature
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10 Iron – Carbon Equilibrium Diagram
cont.…
 Critical Temperatures
 The temperature along GSE is known as upper critical temperature. The
temperature along GS during heating as (upper critical temperature) where
austenite + alpha iron changes into austenite and vice versa.
 The temperature along GS during cooling as A3 where austenite changes into
austenite + alpha iron and vice versa during heating.
 The temperature along line SE during heating as Acm changes into austenite from
austenite + cementite and vice versa.
 The temperature along PSK is known as lower critical temperature when pearlite
changes into austenite on heating as denoted, by A1

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11 Objectives of Heat Treatment

 It relieves internal stresses induced during hot or cold working.

 It changes or refines grain size.
 It increases resistance to heat and corrosion.
 It improves mechanical properties such as ductility, strength, hardness, toughness, etc.
 It helps to improve machinability.
 It increases wear resistance
 It removes gases.
 It improves electrical and magnetic properties.
 It changes the chemical composition.
 It helps to improve shock resistance.
 It improves weldability

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12 Normalizing

 This is a softening process

 Iron base alloys are heated 40 – 50 0c above the upper-critical limit
 Hold the metal at that temperature for a specified period
 Then it is cooled in still air up to room temperature
 Objectives
 To soften metals
 Refine grain structure
 Improve machinability after forging and rolling
 Improve grain size
 Improve structure of weld Structure of
 Prepare steel for sub heat treatment Normalized Medium
Carbon Steel
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 Heating Temperature Ranges for
13 Normalizing and Annealing

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14 Annealing
 This is also a softening process
 Metals are heated above the transformation temperature and held there for proper
time
 Then it is cooled slowly (at the rate of 30 to 150 0C per hour) below the
transformation temperature in the furnace.
 Objectives
 Restore cold work or heat treated alloy to its original properties (ductility and toughness)
 To modify the microstructure
 Relieve internal stresses
 Improve machinability
 There are two types of annealing
 Full annealing
 Process annealing
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15 Annealing Cont.…
 Full Annealing
 Full annealing is performed on ferrous alloys, generally low or medium carbon steels
 These steels are heated above A1 or A3 and then cooled slowly ( typically at 10 0C
per hour) in the furnace
 Obtained structure contains coarse pearlite
 Full annealed alloys will be soft and ductile and will have small, uniform grains
 Process Annealing
 Process annealing is conducted on alloys to restore ductility which may have
exhausted during work hardening processes
 After process annealing, work pieces can be further worked in to desired finalized
shape
 In this work piece is heated below or close to lower critical temperature

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 16 Hardening

 This is a hardness inducing heat treatment process

 Steel is heated above the critical point and held at that temperature for a
definite time
Structure of hardened
medium carbon steel
 Then it is quenched rapidly in water, oil or molten salt bath
by water quenching  Due to the rapid cooling, austenite structure changes in to martensite
structure
 Hardness of martensite varies from 500 to 1000 BHN
 This structure is consist of needle like fibrous mass

Structure of hardened
medium carbon steel DoET, USJP 8/17/2017

by oil quenching
 Temperature, Time and Transformation
17 (TTT) Curve

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 Age Hardening/ Precipitation
18
Hardening

 Performed mostly for hardening of non-ferrous alloys

 Alloy is heated to an intermediate temperature and held there for a period
of time
 In this time period precipitation takes place
 Mechanical properties of the alloy will depend on the size of the particles
of the precipitate phase
 Since it is required keep the alloys at elevated temperature for longer
period of time, this process is also known as aging or age hardening
 Optimal precipitation time should be maintain otherwise over aging may
occur resulting softer and weaker alloys

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19 Case Hardening
 In many applications, rather than having special properties through out the work
piece, it is required to have them only at its surface or parts of the work piece
(properties such as hardness)
 For such cases, rather than performing full hardening process, case hardening
process is performed
 This method is particularly useful for improving resistance to surface indentation,
fatigue and wear
 Following are the case hardening processes,
 Carburizing
 Nitriding
 Cyaniding
 Induction Hardening
 Flame Hardening

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 Case Hardening Cont.…
20
Process Metals Element Procedure General Applications
Hardened added to Characteristics
surface
Carburizing Low Carbon C Heat steel in an A hard high Gears, cams,
Steel, atmosphere of carbon surface is shafts,
Alloy Steel carbonaceous gases or produced. bearings, etc
carbon containing Hardness 55 to 65
solids. Then quench HRC
Case depth <0.5-
1.5mm
Nitriding Steels, Alloy N Heat steel in an Surface hardness Gears, shafts,
steels, stainless atmosphere of up to 1100 HV. sprockets,
steels, HSS ammonia gas or Case depth 0.1 to valves, cutters,
mixtures of molten 0.6 mm fuel-injection
cyanide salts pump parts,etc
Cyaniding Low carbon C and N Heat steel in a molten Surface hardness Bolts, nuts,
steel, bath of solutions of up to 65 HRC. screws, small
Alloy steel cyanide and other salts Case depth 0.025 gears
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to 0.25 mm 8/17/2017
 Case Hardening Cont.…
21

Process Metals Element Procedure General Applications

Hardened added to Characteristics
surface
Induction Medium None Metal part is placed in Surface hardness Gears and
Hardening carbon steels, copper induction coils 50 to 60 HRC sprocket teeth,
Cast irons and is heated by high Case depth 0.7 to axels,
frequency current 6 mm crankshafts,
Then quenched piston rods,
lathe beds and
centers
Flame Same as None Surface is heated with Same as above Same as above
Hardening above an oxyacetylene torch
Then quenched with
water spray of other
quenching methods

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 Comparison between full hardening
22 and case hardening
Full Hardening
It is process carried out on steel parts to resist wear or
abrasion and in case of cutting tools to improve their
cutting ability
In this process, the structure formed of materials and
whole of the part is effected.
Its main purpose is to resist wear and increase the
cutting ability.
Hardening is always followed by tempering to increase
its usefulness.
In hardening the metals are heated above critical
temperature and then cooled rapidly.
It is a cheap and fast process.
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Case Hardening
The main objective of case- hardening of steel parts is to
have a hard surface and tough core. The various
methods are, carburizing, cyaniding, nitriding, flame
hardening and induction hardening.
In this process, the only outer surface (up to some
depth) is saturated by carbon, nitrogen or both. Where
core is not affected (remains tough).
Its main purpose is get outer surface hard where inner
core is kept tough. It is used to obtain close tolerances
on machine parts, higher fatigue limit and high
mechanical properties in core of the metal part.
Case hardening is not always followed by tempering.
In case hardening, the metals are heated but it not
necessary to cool them rapidly always
It is costly and time consuming process.
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23 Tempering

 Tempering is used to reduce brittleness and to increase ductility and

toughness of steels hardened by heat treatments
 In tempering, hardened steel is reheated to a temperature below the
critical temperature and then followed by desired rate of cooling
 Tempering can be classified into three categories depending on the
reheating temperature such as,
 Low temperature tempering
 Hardened steels are reheated up to 200 0C

 Medium temperature tempering

 Hardened steels are reheated in the temperature range of 200 – 350 0C

 High temperature tempering

 Hardened steels are reheated in the range of 350 – 550 0C

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24 Aus-Tempering

 It is a special type of tempering

 In this process steel is quenched from austenitizing temperature rapidly to
avoid formation of ferrite and perlite.
 Then it is held at a certain temperature (above room temperature) so as to
allow transformation from austenite to bainite is complete
 Then the work piece is cooled at a moderate rate up to the room
temperature
 this process is used so as to avoid cracking and distortions during the
quenching process or to improve ductility and toughness while maintaining
hardness

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 Aus-Tempering and Mar Tempering
25 Process

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26 Mar Tempering

 This is also a special type of tempering process

 In this process work piece is quenched from austenitizing temperature in a
hot-fluid medium (hot oil or molten salt)
 Then it is held at that temperature until the uniform temperature is achieved
throughout the component.
 Then it is cooled down at a moderate rate up to the room temperature
 Mar tempering produces martensite in steel with minimum distortion and
residual stresses

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27 Reference

 R. Singh, Introduction to Basic Manufacturing Processes and Workshop

Technology. New Age International (P) Ltd., 2006.
 S. Kalpakjian and S. R. Schmid, Manufacturing Engineering and Technology,
4th ed. Pearson Education, 2011.
 “Age Hardening :,” Bluewater Thermal Solutions. [Online]. Available:
http://bluewaterthermal.com/age-hardening/. [Accessed: 15-Aug-2017].
 “What is Age Hardening? - Definition from Corrosionpedia,”
Corrosionpedia. [Online]. Available:
https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/58/age-hardening. [Accessed:
15-Aug-2017].

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