HEAT TREATMENTS OF

STEEL
By Juan Sebastián Suárez Sánchez
Technologist in Industrial Electromechanical Maintenance
What is a heat treatment?
These are heating and
cooling processes that
allow certain changes
in the structure without
affecting the chemical
composition of the
steel.
This process has three components
Component Description

The steel is preheated for a sufficient period, is then

Heating transferred to the furnace which is at the operating
temperature.
This process is when steel is heated to the proper
Soaking temperature, it is held at that temperature until the
desired internal structural changes will occur.
It is the decisive phase in most treatments. To
achieve the desired constituent, This is the final
Cooling process and to cool the metal a cooling medium can
be used can be a gas, liquid, solid, or combination
of these.
Types of Heat treatments of
Steel

NORMALIZIN
ANNEALING G HARDENING TEMPERING
 ANNEALING
This process is normally used for the
softening of steel. The term also refers
to treatments intended to alter the
mechanical or the physical properties,
to produce a definite microstructure, or to
remove gases. The temperature of the
operation and the rate of cooling
depend upon the type of the steel being
annealed and the purpose of the
treatment (approximately between 700°
C and 900°C)
NORMALIZING
The purpose of normalizing is to remove
any internal stresses from heat treatment,
machining, forging, forming, welding, or
casting. Metal failure can result from
uncontrolled stress, so normalizing steel
before any hardening can help ensure the
success of projects, in this process steel is
heated, to a temperature between the
810°C and 930°C and then cooled in
atmospheric air
 HARDENING
This is a complementary process of
tempering; this means that it is only
done on materials that underwent a
tempering process. This treatment
allows the adaptability of the steel, at
the cost of decreasing its hardness and
elasticity limit, this process is
performed at low temperatures,
between 160°C and 500°C and is
performed in tempering furnaces and
then cooled with atmospheric air.
TEMPERING
Steel Tempering consists of heating
at temperatures between 800° C and
1220° C, followed by rapid cooling at
a rate higher than the tempering
criticism. The purpose of this
treatment is to increase the hardness
and resistances of the steel; the rapid
cooling is performed to prevent low
temperature processes from
occurring and affecting the toughness
of the steel.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!