Steel heat – Treating methods

Nhóm I: Bùi Ngọc Giang

Trương Văn Quý
Quách Hữu Định
A number of heat treatment methods can be used to modify specific properties of steel, such as the hardness and ductility,
improvement of machinability, stress relief, or obtaining high strength and impact properties.

The heat treatments of steel most commonly employed are annealing, normalizing, spheroidizing, and hardening (quenching)
and tempering.
I. Annealing
The annealing of a metal has one of the following objectives:
+ To soften the steel and to improve machinability.
+ To relieve internal stresses induced by some previous treatment (rolling, forging, uneven cooling).
+ To remove coarseness of grain.
Several types of annealing processes are used on carbon and low-alloy steel. These are generally referred to as full
annealing, process annealing, and spheroidizing annealing.
Annealing consists of heating a metal to a suitable temperature and holding it there, followed by cooling at a suitable
rate. It is used to soften but also to produce desired changes in other properties in microstructure.
Annealing improves machinability, facilitation in cold working, mechanical or electrical properties, and dimensional
stability.
The time/temperature cycles used vary widely both in the maximum temperature to be attained and the cooling rate
employed, depending on the composition of the metal, its condition, and the results desired.
When the term is used without qualification, full annealing is implied. When applied only for the relief of stress,
the process is properly called stress relief.
In full annealing, the steel is heated to just above the upper critical temperature, held for a sufficient length of
time to fully austenitize the material structure, then allowed to cool at a slow, controlled rate in the furnace. A full
annealing provides a relatively soft, ductile material free of internal stresses.
Process annealing, sometimes referred to as stress relief, is carried out at temperatures below the lower critical
temperature. This treatment is used to improve the ductility and decrease residual stresses in work- hardened
steel.
Spheroidizing softens the steel and improves its machinability.
II. Normalizing

The normalizing heat treatment cycle involves heating slowly to the normalizing temperature for that particular steel,
holding it at a tem- perature sufficient to allow homogenization, then air cooling to room temperature. Normalizing relieves
the internal stresses caused by pre- vious cold working and produces softness and ductility. The steel is left harder and with
higher tensile strength than after annealing.
III. Hardening

Steel is hardened by a rapid cool down (quenching) from within or above the critical temperature range of the
metal. The temperatures are the same as those given for full annealing.
IV. Tempering

Tempering is classified as a secondary heat treatment performed on some normalized and almost all hardened steels.
The object of tem- pering is to remove some of the brittleness by allowing certain solid- state transformations to occur.
The steel is heated to a predetermined temperature, which is always below the lower critical temperature. This is
followed by a controlled rate of cooling. In most cases, tem- pering reduces the hardness of the steel, increases its
toughness, and eliminates residual stresses.
THE END