Annealing , normalizing , quenching ,

martensitic transformation .
THIRUNAVUKARASU.H
13MY12
PSG TECH KOVAI
Annealing
 heat treatment that alters the
microstructure of a material causing
changes in properties such as strength,
hardness, and ductility

 It the process of heating solid metal to high

temperatures and cooling it slowly so that
its particles arrange into a defined lattice
Stages in annealing
 Heating to the desired temperature ,
 Holding or soaking at that temperature,
 Cooling or quenching ,usually to room temperature .

 In practice annealing concept is most widely used in heat

treatment of iron and steals
Purpose of annealing
 It is used to achieve one or more of the following purpose .
1. To relive or remove stresses
2. To include softness
3. To alter ductility , toughness, electrical, magnetic.
4. To Refine grain size
5. To remove gases
6. To produce a definite microstructure .
Application
 Annealing process is employed in following application
 Casting
 Forging
 Rolled stock
 Press work ….
Types of annealing
 Full annealing
 Process annealing
 Stress relief annealing
 Re crystallization annealing , and
 Spheroidise annealing.
Full annealing
 Heating the steal to a temperature at or near the critical
point , holding there for a time period and then allowing it to
cool slowly in the furnace itself .
Example
In full annealing of hypoeutectoid steels less than 0.77%
is heated to 723 to 910 C above A3 line convert to single
phase austenite cooled slowly in room temperature .
Resulting structure is coarse pearlite with excess of
ferrite it is quite soft and more ductile

 cooling rate of full annealing is 30-40 C

Full annealing
Process annealing
 Process annealing is a heat treatment that is often used to soften
and increase the ductility of a previously strain hardened metal .
Ductility is important in shaping and creating a more refined piece
of work through processes such
as rolling, drawing, forging, spinning, extruding and heading.
 Example
it is extensively employed for steel wires and sheet products
(especially low carbon steels) A1 temperature and cooled at any
desired rate
 The temperature range for process annealing ranges from 260 °C
(500 °F) to 760 °C (1400 °F), depending on the alloy in question.
Process annealing
 Stress-Relief Annealing
 It is an annealing process below the
transformation temperature Ac1,
with subsequent slow cooling, the
aim of which is to reduce the
internal residual stresses in a
workpiece without intentionally
changing its structure and
mechanical properties
Causes of Residual Stresses
1. Thermal factors (e.g., thermal stresses caused by
temperature gradients within the workpiece during
heating or cooling)
2. Mechanical factors (e.g., cold-working)
3. Metallurgical factors (e.g., transformation of the
microstructure)
How to Remove Residual Stresses?
 R.S. can be reduced only by a plastic deformation in the
microstructure.
 This requires that the yield strength of the material be
lowered below the value of the residual stresses.
 The more the yield strength is lowered, the greater the plastic
deformation and correspondingly the greater the possibility or
reducing the residual stresses
 The yield strength and the ultimate tensile strength of the steel
both decrease with increasing temperature
Stress-Relief Annealing Process
 For plain carbon and low-alloy steels the temperature to
which the specimen is heated is usually between 450 and
650˚C, whereas for hot-working tool steels and high-
speed steels it is between 600 and 750˚C
 This treatment will not cause any phase changes, but
recrystallization may take place.
 Machining allowance sufficient to compensate for any
warping resulting from stress relieving should be provided
 Stress-Relief Annealing – R.S.
 In the heat treatment of metals, quenching or rapid cooling is
the cause of the greatest residual stresses
 To activate plastic deformations, the local residual stresses
must be above the yield strength of the material.
 Because of this fact, steels that have a high yield strength at
elevated temperatures can withstand higher levels of residual
stress than those that have a low yield strength at elevated
temperatures
 Soaking time also has an influence on the effect of stress-relief
annealing
 Spheroidise annealing
 The process is limited to steels in excess of 0.5% carbon and consists of
heating the steel to temperature about A1 (727°C). At this temperature
any cold worked ferrite will recrystallise and the iron carbide present in
pearlite will form as spheroids or “ball up”. As a result of change of
carbides shape the strength and hardness are reduced.
 To remove coarse pearlite and making machining process easy .
 It forms spherodite structure of maximum soft and ductility easy to
machining and deforming.
Objectives
 To soften steels
 To increase ductility and toughness
 To improve machinablity and formability
 To reduce hardness ,strength , and wear resistance
Materials
 Spheroidzing is extensively employed for
 Medium carbon steel
 High carbon (tool steel)
2. Normalizing
 A heat treatment process consisting of
austenitizing at temperatures of 30–80˚C
above the AC3 transformation temperature
followed by slow cooling (usually in air)
 The aim of which is to obtain a fine-grained,
uniformly distributed, ferrite–pearlite
structure
 Normalizing is applied mainly to unalloyed
and low-alloy hypoeutectoid steels
 For hypereutectoid steels the austenitizing
temperature is 30–80˚C above the AC1 or
ACm transformation temperature
 Cooling rate 60-70˚C
Quenching
 Quenching is the rapid cooling of metal or an alloy from an
elevated temperature.
 This is usually done with water, brine, oil, polymer, or even
forced or still air.
 There are two types of quenching – the first is cooling to obtain an
acceptable microstructure and mechanical properties that will
meet minimum specs after tempering.
 The second consists of rapid cooling of iron-base alloys and
nonferrous metals to retain uniformity in the material. Quenching
is performed to control the transformation of austentite and to
form the microstructure. When only selected areas of the material
are quenched, the process is called selective quenching
 Quenching
 Soaking temperature 30-50°C above A3 or A1, then fast cooling (in water or
oil) with cooling rate exceeding a critical value. The critical cooling rate is
required to obtain non-equilibrium structure called martensite. During fast
cooling austenite cannot transform to ferrite and pearlite by atomic diffusion.
 Martensite is supersaturated solid solution of carbon in α-iron (greatly
supersaturated ferrite) with tetragonal body centered structure. Martensite is
very hard and brittle. Martensite has a “needle-like” structure.

 Kinetics of martensite transformation is presented by TTT diagrams (Time-

Temperature-Transformation). With the quenching-hardening process the
speed of quenching can affect the amount of marteniste formed. This severe
cooling rate will be affected by the component size and quenching medium
type (water, oil). The critical cooling rate is the slowest speed of quenching that
will ensure maximum hardness (full martensitic structure).
 Martensite, “Martensitic
Transformation”
 In an alloy, martensite is a metastable transitional structure between two
allotropic modifications whose abilities to dissolve a solute differ, the high
temperature phase having the greater solubility.
 The amount of high temperature phase transformed to martensite depends
upon the temperature attained in cooling. Martensite is also a metastable
phase of steel, formed by the transformation of austentite below a specified
temperature.
 Martensite is characterized by an interstitial supersaturated solid solution of
carbon in iron having a body-centered tetragonal lattice that resembles an
acicular, needlelike pattern that can be observed in laboratory testing.
 Martensitic transformation is a reaction that takes place in some metals
during the cooling phase causing the formation of the acircular structures
called “martensite
End