HEAT TREATMENT

SENTHILMURUGAN ARUMUGAM M.E, (PhD),

Research Scholar
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Coimbatore Institute of Technology,
Coimbatore – 600 014.

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Objective

To Increase the mechanical properties of materials.

To Relieve the internal stress.
To change the structure and size of grain.
To Improve mach-inability.
To soften metal.

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Overview

Classification of Steel.

Factors to be considered in Heat treatment.

Over view of IRON CARBON EQUILIBRIUM DIAGRAM.

Awareness on Types of Heat Treatment process- Stress relieving.

Hardening, Quenching and Tempering.

Carburising Types of Heat treatment furnace.

Mechanical properties testing.

Heat treatment effect on Machinabilty and Micro structure.

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Classification of Steel

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Ferrous Material

Ferrous material
It is further categorized into two classes steels and irons based on the Carbon
content.

• Carbon content less than 2.14 % are called Steels.

• Carbon content greater than 2.14 % are called irons.

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Alloy steels - Purposes

• An alloy steel is defined as a steel to which elements other than carbon are added in
sufficient amount to achieve desired physical property. There are two types of alloy
steels
1. Low alloy steel
2. High alloy steel

Purpose of Alloy steels

• To improve mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties

• To increase wear resistance
• To increase corrosion resistance

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Functions of alloying elements
Alloying Elements Functions

Carbon (C) Increases solid-solution strength.

Increase hardenability.

Silicon (Si) Used as a deoxidizer.

Improves oxidation resistance.
It prevents from decarburization.

Manganese (Mn) Improves strength in hot rolled and heat treated

condition.
Wear and abrasion resistant.

Nickel (Ni) Strengthens annealed steels.

Increases toughness of steels.
Good resistance to corrosion.

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 Functions of alloying elements
Alloying Elements Functions
Chromium (Cr) Increases corrosion and oxidation resistance.
Increases hardenability.
Increases strength at high temperature.
Resistance to wear and abrasion.
Molybdenum (Mo) It posses excess tensile strength.
Enhances corrosion resistance.
Capable to form abrasion resistance particles.
Cobalt (Co) Increases red hot hardness.
Increases residual magnetism.
Tungsten (W) Abrasion resistant.
Promotes red hot hardness and hot strength.
Increase tensile strength and elastic limit.
Vanadium (V) Increases hardenability when dissolved.
Improves fine grain structure.

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Low alloy steel

• Carbon content is below 0.25 %

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Steels

Steels are classified into low alloy steels and high alloy steels.

• An alloy steel is defined as a steel to which elements other than carbon are added in
sufficient amount.

Purpose of Alloy steels

• To improve mechanical, electrical and magnetic properties
• To increase wear resistance
• To increase corrosion resistance

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 Applications
• Mild Steel
• It is a good shock absorber, hence used to make manufacturing screws.
• Universal beams
• Case hardening steel
• Gears

• Medium Carbon Steel

• Used to manufacture crankpins, crankshafts
• spline shafts, gear shafts, and axles.
• Also, anchor boats, Axe saw plates, hammers, valve string, and self-taping screws.

• High Carbon Steel

• Used in punches and dyes, railway rails, lift leaf springs, and saws for cutting steel and broaches.

• Alloy Steel
• Nickel steel is used to manufacture IC engine valves, turbine blades, clock pendulum, measuring instruments.
• Vanadium steel is used to make springs, gears, shafts, and various other tools.

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• STEELS
• Steels furtherly are categorized into four sub-categories: Which are:
1. Carbon Steels.
2. Alloy Steels.
3. Tool Steels.
4. Stainless Steels.
• CARBON STEELS:
• HIGH CARBON STEEL: These steels contain carbon content varying from 0.65% to 1.5%. They get hard and tough by heat
treatment, however their weld-ability is poor.
• MEDIUM CARBON STEEL: They contain 0.3% to 0.6% of carbon content. They are moderately strong and have
comparatively good weld-ability than high carbon steel.
• MILD/LOW STEEL: They contain carbon content of 0.15% to 0.25%. They have good weld-ability and also their production
cost is low.
• ALLOY STEELS:
• Alloy steels are steels that contain a variety of elements with 1% to 50% by weight to increase its mechanical properties.
• Technically, all steels are alloys as they contain carbon, but not all steels are alloy steels.
• Other elements may be chromium, vanadium, molybdenum, manganese and nickel etc.
• The element with which these are alloyed depends on the properties needed for a specific application.
• For example, for railway tracks, manganese is added for high strength.
• TOOL STEEL
• Tool steels are steels from which majority of tools are made, but not all tools are made of tool steels necessarily.
• Tools steels are further classified into four categories:

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• OIL QUENCHED: Steels that are quenched in oil after heat treatment.
• AIR QUENCHED: Steels that are quenched in air after heat treatment.
• HIGH SPEED STEEL: High speed steel is commonly used for cutting tools. It contains tungsten, molybdenum or cobalt also
in various ratios.
• STAINLESS STEELS:
• These steels are extremely corrosion resistant because they contain upto 13% chromium.
• Stainless steels can be categorized into:
• Austenitic Stainless Steel: Stainless steel that has austinitic microstructure,
• Martensitic Stainless Steel: Stainless steel that has martensitic microstructure,
• Duplex Steel: Stainless steel that has microstructure of both ferrite and austinitic grains.
• Austenite, martensite and ferrite are microstructures of steels.
• GRADING STEEL
• A number of systems for grading steel exist in different countries. The American system is usually termed as SAE ( Society
of Automobile Engineers) or AISI ( American Iron and Steel Industries) systems. For an example, a steel denoted as SAE
1020 indicates 0.2% carbon and 13% tungsten. In this system the first digit indicates the chief alloying material. Digits
1,2,3,4 and 7 refer to carbon, nickel, nickel/chromium, molybdenum and tungsten respectively. More details may be seen in
the standards. The second digit or second and third digits give the percentage of the main alloying element and the last two
digits indicate the carbon percentage. This therefore explains that SAE 71360 indicates an alloy steel with 0.6% carbon and
the percentage of main alloying material tungsten is 13. In British system steels are designated by the letters En followed by
a number such as 1,2…16, 20 etc. Corresponding constituent elements can be seen from the standards but in general En4
is equivalent to C25 steel, En6 is equivalent to C30 steel and so on.

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