Faculty of engineering

Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Materials Science

Instructor:

Dr. Mohamed Abdallah Bhlol

Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
Faculty of Engineering
Helwan University
 Faculty of engineering
Mechanical Engineering Dept.

Materials Science

Chapter 6
Heat treatment
of steel
Dr. Mohamed Abdallah Bhlol
Topics
Heat treatment definition

Purpose of heat treatment processes

Stages of heat treatment

Heat treatment processes

Heat treatment definition
Heat Treatment is defined as an operation or combination
of operations, involving heating and cooling of a metal or alloy
in its solid state with the object of changing the characteristics
of the material.

Steels can be heat treated to produce a great variety of

microstructures and properties. Generally, heat treatment
uses phase transformation during heating and cooling to
change a microstructure in a solid state.
Purpose of heat treatment processes
To relieve internal stresses developed during cold working,
welding, casting, forging etc.

Harden and strengthen metals

Increase the ductility and toughness

Improve machinability

Change grain size

Soften metals for further (cold) working as in wire drawing

or cold rolling.

Increase heat, wear and corrosion resistance

Stages of heat treatment

Stage l Heating the metal slowly to ensure a uniform

temperature.

Stage 2 Soaking (holding) the metal at a given temperature

for a given period of time.
•Internal structural changes take place.
•soaking period depends on the chemical analysis of the metal
and the mass of the part

Stage 3 Cooling the metal to room temperature.

• To cool the metal, you can place it in direct contact with a
cooling medium composed of a gas, liquid, solid, or
combination of these.
Stages of heat treatment
 Heat treatment processes

The various heat treatments processes can be classified

as:

Annealing

 Normalizing

 Hardening

Tempering

Treatments which depend upon isothermal

transformations
Heat treatment processes
•Annealing
is a heat treatment used to eliminate some or all of the
effects of cold working.

Annealing at a low temperature may be used to eliminate

the residual stresses produced during cold working without
affecting the mechanical properties of the finished part, or

 annealing may be used to completely eliminate the strain

hardening achieved during cold working. In this case, the
final part is soft and ductile but still has a good surface finish
and dimensional accuracy.
 Heat treatment processes
•Full Annealing
•Steel is heated 30oC-50oC above upper critical temperature at
sufficient time to allow the material to fully form austenite.

•The steel then slowly cooled in furnace

•The steel is heated above Ac3 (for hypo-eutectoid steels) &

Ac1 (for hyper-eutectoid steels) → (hold) → then the steel is
furnace cooled to obtain Coarse Pearlite.

•Coarse Pearlite has low (↓) Hardness but high (↑) Ductility.
Heat treatment processes
•Full Annealing
 Heat treatment processes
•Stress-Relief Annealing
•employed to remove
residual stresses in large
steel castings and welded
structures

•parts are heated below

Ac1(550-660°C), held for
period of time, then slowly
cooled
 Heat treatment processes
•Spheroidization Annealing
•This is a very specific heat
treatment given to high
carbon steel requiring
extensive machining prior
to final hardening &
tempering. The main
purpose of the treatment is
to increase the ductility of
the sample.

•Like stress relief annealing

the treatment is done just
below 723 0C.
Heat treatment processes
•Normalizing
•The sample is heat above
AC3 and Acm to complete
Austenization. The sample
is then air cooled to obtain
Fine pearlite.

•Fine pearlite has a

reasonably good hardness
and ductility.

•In hypo-eutectoid steels

normalizing is done 50oC
above the annealing
temperature.
 Heat treatment processes
•Hardening
•The sample is heated above Ac3
and Acm to cause Austenization.
The sample is then quenched at a
cooling rate higher than the critical
cooling rate.

•The transformation to Martensite is

usually not complete and the sample
will have some retained Austenite.

•The Martensite produced is hard

and brittle and tempering operation
usually follows hardening. This gives
a good combination of strength and
toughness.
Heat treatment processes
•Tempering
•It consist of heating quenched, hardened steel in
martensitic condition to some predetermined temperature
between room temp & the critical temp of the steel for a
certain length of the time followed by air cooling.

• Heating a hardened steel below the lower critical

temperature.

• Cooling the steel either rapidly or slowly susceptible to

temper brittleness.