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    Objectives of Heat Treatments

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    Nilesh Rana
    The document discusses the objectives and purposes of heat treating metals. It explains that heat treatment is used to alter physical and mechanical properties without changing the shape of the product. Some key reasons for heat treating steel include softening, hardening, and material modification. Tempering is introduced as a process done after quench hardening to reduce brittleness and achieve a balance of properties like hardness, ductility, and strength. Austempering and martempering are also summarized as alternative quenching techniques.

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    Objectives of Heat Treatments

    Uploaded by

    Nilesh Rana
    3K views3 pages
    The document discusses the objectives and purposes of heat treating metals. It explains that heat treatment is used to alter physical and mechanical properties without changing the shape of the product. Some key reasons for heat treating steel include softening, hardening, and material modification. Tempering is introduced as a process done after quench hardening to reduce brittleness and achieve a balance of properties like hardness, ductility, and strength. Austempering and martempering are also summarized as alternative quenching techniques.

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    The document discusses the objectives and purposes of heat treating metals. It explains that heat treatment is used to alter physical and mechanical properties without changing the shape of the product. Some key reasons for heat treating steel include softening, hardening, and material modification. Tempering is introduced as a process done after quench hardening to reduce brittleness and achieve a balance of properties like hardness, ductility, and strength. Austempering and martempering are also summarized as alternative quenching techniques.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    3K views3 pages

    Objectives of Heat Treatments

    Uploaded by

    Nilesh Rana
    The document discusses the objectives and purposes of heat treating metals. It explains that heat treatment is used to alter physical and mechanical properties without changing the shape of the product. Some key reasons for heat treating steel include softening, hardening, and material modification. Tempering is introduced as a process done after quench hardening to reduce brittleness and achieve a balance of properties like hardness, ductility, and strength. Austempering and martempering are also summarized as alternative quenching techniques.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    Heat treatment is used to alter the physical and mechanical properties of metals without changing their shape. It is commonly used to increase strength but can also be used to improve machinability or formability.

    Steels are heat treated mainly to soften, harden, or modify material properties.

    Tempering is done after quench hardening to reduce brittleness by altering the martensite structure and producing a desired combination of hardness, ductility, toughness and strength.

    Objectives of Heat Treatments

    Heat Treatment is the controlled heating and cooling of metals to alter their physical and
    mechanical properties without changing the product shape. Heat treatment is sometimes
    done inadvertently due to manufacturing processes that either heat or cool the metal such
    as welding or forming.

    Heat Treatment is often associated with increasing the strength of material, but it can also
    be used to alter certain manufacturability objectives such as improve machining, improve
    formability, restore ductility after a cold working operation. Thus it is a very enabling
    manufacturing process that can not only help other manufacturing process, but can also
    improve product performance by increasing strength or other desirable characteristics.

    Steels are particularly suitable for heat treatment, since they respond well to heat treatment
    and the commercial use of steels exceeds that of any other material. Steels are heat treated
    for one of the following reasons:
    1
    Softening
    .
    2
    Hardening
    .
    3
    Material Modification
    .

    Introduction

    Tempering is a process done subsequent to quench hardening. Quench-hardened parts are


    often too brittle. This brittleness is caused by a predominance of Martensite. This brittleness
    is removed by tempering. Tempering results in a desired combination of hardness, ductility,
    toughness, strength, and structural stability. Tempering is not to be confused with tempers
    on rolled stock-these tempers are an indication of the degree of cold work performed.
    The mechanism of tempering depends on the steel and the tempering temperature. The
    prevalent Martensite is a somewhat unstable structure. When heated, the Carbon atoms
    diffuse from Martensite to form a carbide precipitate and the concurrent formation of Ferrite
    and Cementite, which is the stable form. Tool steels for example, lose about 2 to 4 points of
    hardness on the Rockwell C scale. Even though a little strength is sacrificed, toughness (as
    measured by impact strength) is increased substantially. Springs and such parts need to be
    much tougher — these are tempered to a much lower hardness.

    Tempering is done immediately after quench hardening. When the steel cools to about 40
    ºC (104 ºF) after quenching, it is ready to be tempered. The part is reheated to a
    temperature of 150 to 400 ºC (302 to 752 ºF). In this region a softer and tougher structure
    Troostite is formed. Alternatively, the steel can be heated to a temperature of 400 to 700 ºC
    (752 to 1292 ºF) that results in a softer structure known as Sorbite. This has less strength
    than Troostite but more ductility and toughness.

    The heating for tempering is best done by immersing the parts in oil, for tempering upto
    350 ºC (662 ºF) and then heating the oil with the parts to the appropriate temperature.
    Heating in a bath also ensures that the entire part has the same temperature and will
    undergo the same tempering. For temperatures above 350 ºC (662 ºF) it is best to use a
    bath of nitrate salts. The salt baths can be heated upto 625 ºC (1157 ºF). Regardless of the
    bath, gradual heating is important to avoid cracking the steel. After reaching the desired
    temperature, the parts are held at that temperature for about 2 hours, then removed from
    the bath and cooled in still air.
    Top of Page

    Austempering

    Austempering is a quenching technique. The part is not quenched through the Martensite
    transformation. Instead the material is quenched above the temperature when Martensite
    forms MS, around 315 ºC (600 ºF). It is held till at this temperature till the entire part
    reaches this temperature. As the part is held longer at this temperature, the Austenite
    transforms into Bainite. Bainite is tough enough so that further tempering is not necessary,
    and the tendency to crack is severely reduced.
    Top of Page

    Martempering

    Martempering is similar to Austempering except that the part is slowly cooled through the
    martensite transformation. The structure is martensite, which needs to tempered just as
    much as martensite that is formed through rapid quenching. The biggest advantage of
    Austempering over rapid quenching is that there is less distortion and tendency to crack.

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