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    Carbon Steel Normalizing

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    Anil S Chaudhary
    Carbon steel normalizing involves heating steel above its austenitic temperature (750-980°C) and holding for 1 hour per 25mm thickness to transform all steel to austenite. It is then air cooled to produce a fine pearlite microstructure that is tougher than annealed steel. Normalizing improves properties like strength, hardness, and thermal stability compared to annealing by producing a more uniform microstructure through carbon redistribution during the phase change. It is commonly used for castings and forged steel due to its low cost and ability to refine grains and relieve stresses.

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    Carbon Steel Normalizing

    Uploaded by

    Anil S Chaudhary
    113 views2 pages
    Carbon steel normalizing involves heating steel above its austenitic temperature (750-980°C) and holding for 1 hour per 25mm thickness to transform all steel to austenite. It is then air cooled to produce a fine pearlite microstructure that is tougher than annealed steel. Normalizing improves properties like strength, hardness, and thermal stability compared to annealing by producing a more uniform microstructure through carbon redistribution during the phase change. It is commonly used for castings and forged steel due to its low cost and ability to refine grains and relieve stresses.

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    Carbon steel normalizing involves heating steel above its austenitic temperature (750-980°C) and holding for 1 hour per 25mm thickness to transform all steel to austenite. It is then air cooled to produce a fine pearlite microstructure that is tougher than annealed steel. Normalizing improves properties like strength, hardness, and thermal stability compared to annealing by producing a more uniform microstructure through carbon redistribution during the phase change. It is commonly used for castings and forged steel due to its low cost and ability to refine grains and relieve stresses.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    113 views2 pages

    Carbon Steel Normalizing

    Uploaded by

    Anil S Chaudhary
    Carbon steel normalizing involves heating steel above its austenitic temperature (750-980°C) and holding for 1 hour per 25mm thickness to transform all steel to austenite. It is then air cooled to produce a fine pearlite microstructure that is tougher than annealed steel. Normalizing improves properties like strength, hardness, and thermal stability compared to annealing by producing a more uniform microstructure through carbon redistribution during the phase change. It is commonly used for castings and forged steel due to its low cost and ability to refine grains and relieve stresses.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Carbon Steel Normalizing

    Carbon steel contains carbon in the range of 0.12 to 2%. As the percentage of carbon content increases, the
    steel becomes harder, tougher and less ductile. Low carbon steels usually do not need normalizing. However,
    they can be normalized on the requirement.

    In normalizing heat treatment of carbon steel, it is heated to a temperature of 55 °C (131 °F) above the
    austenitic temperature, Ac3, (Lies between 750-980 °C / 1320-1796 °F) also known as “holding temperature”
    as shown in the following figure.

    The period of holding temperature is one hour per 25 mm (0.984 in) thickness. The process ensures that all the
    steel transforms into austenite. Steel is then cooled down to ambient temperature in still air.

    This process produces fine pearlite structure which is more uniform. Pearlite is a layered structure of two
    phases i.e. cementite (iron carbide) and α-ferrite.  This process is different from annealing because in the
    annealing the heated metal is cooled slowly at a specified rate inside the furnace.

    Normalized steel has greater strength and hardness than annealed steel, and the process is more economical
    due to cooling directly with air.
    Microstructure in Normalizing 
    The thickness of carbon steel can have a significant effect on the cooling rate and thus the resulting
    microstructure. The thicker pieces cool down slower and become more ductile after normalizing than thinner
    pieces.

    After normalizing the portions of steel containing 0.80% of carbon are pearlite while the areas having low
    carbon are ferrites. The redistribution of carbon atoms takes place between ferrite (0.022 % by wt.) and
    cementite (6.7% by wt.) by the process of atomic diffusion.

    The amount of pearlite is more than that in annealed steel with same carbon content. This is because of
    shifting of the eutectoid composition to lower value and formation of cementite.  

    The fine-grained pearlite microstructure is tougher than coarse-grained ones. Normalizing reduces the internal
    stresses of the carbon steel. It also improves microstructural homogeneity, enhances thermal stability and
    response to heat treatment. 

    Normalizing Equipment
    The equipment in use for normalizing comes in both batch and continuous operations. Bell furnace offers an
    economical method of heat treatment and different bell lifting mechanisms.

    Continuous furnaces heat treats the metal in the continuous fashion. The conveyor runs at constant speed, and
    the product is carried to desired conditions after heat treatment. 

    Application of Normalizing 
    The low cost of the normalizing process makes it one of the most extensively used industrial process when
    compared to annealing. The furnace is available for the next batch as soon as heating and holding periods are
    over. Normalizing is used to:

     Improve the grain size refinement and machinability of cast structures of castings
     Recover the original mechanical properties of forged or cold worked steel
     Ease the forging operations for high carbon steel
     Stress relieve of castings

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