Titto - AMT Assg 2

1.
As a production engineer, you have been asked to heat treat 4340 steel for the following
application and processes. What is your suggestion and comment on the proper microstructure?
A. Production of forged pieces (hot working)
B. Machining of the sample bar to have different diameters.
C. For final application to have a great combination of toughness and strength.
4340 steel is a medium carbon low-alloy steel known for its excellent toughness, strength, and
hardenability.
To make it more suitable for the applications mentioned like forging, machining, and combination of
toughness and strength following heat treatment is suggested.
A. Production of Forged Pieces (Hot Working)

Steel should be heated to its forging temperature range, which is between 1150°C to 1200°C where
the steel is fully austenitic, and it can be easily deformed under compressive forces of forging.
After forging, it is good to do normalizing by heating the steel to around 850°C to 900°C and then
cooling gradually in air so that the grain size is refined and removed forging induced internal
stresses. The final microstructure after normalizing should be fine-grained pearlite and ferrite.
B. Machining of the Sample Bar to Have Different Diameters

Before machining, steel can be softened through annealing to improve machinability. This is done by
heating steel to a temperature between 800°C to 850°C, followed by slow cooling usually inside the
furnace.
The final microstructure after heat treatment must be spherodized cementite in a ferrite matrix which
has high machinability with low tool wear.
C. Application to have a great combination of toughness and strength

The mixed microstructure of bainitic ferrite and austenite gives an excellent combination of
toughness and strength, but does not always give good results because of the relatively large regions
of austenite between the sheaves of bainite which readily transform into high-carbon martensite and
increases brittleness. Grain refinement is an important method for simultaneously improving the
strength and toughness of steels without adding alloying elements.
To achieve a good balance of high toughness and strength, the steel should undergo quenching and
tempering process. For this we begin with heating steel above 800 degree to form Austenite and then
rapidly cool the steel to transform the austenite into martensite. Martensite is a very hard and brittle
phase which need to be treated further by tempering. After quenching, the steel should be tempered
between 500-600 degree Celsius to achieve balanced combination of strength and toughness. High
temperature gives more toughness while low temperature gives more strength at the expense of some
toughness. The tempering of martensite is carried out in a temperature range where austenite does not
form – the goal is simply to optimise properties through low-temperature heat treatment.
2. Explain the detailed mechanism of quench cracking in steel?

Quench cracking is a type of small fractures occurs in steel during quenching, which is a rapid
cooling process usually employed to harden steel. This cracking is primarily caused by the thermal
structural stresses and volumetric stress developed due to phase change.
For quenching steel is heated to very high temperature where it is in austenitic phase and then cooled
rapidly to martensitic phase. This transformation is diffusion less and occurs very fast along with
significant volume expansion because martensite has a lower density. If the volumetric expansion is
not uniform due to differential cooling rate, this develops internal stresses.
During quenching, the surface of the steel cools much faster than the inner core and this difference
leads to a temperature gradient within the steel. The surface contracts immediately as it cools and the
core remains hot with less contraction resulting in developing thermal stress. Outer side will have
tensile stress while inner part have compressive stress and id the surface stress is more than the
strength of steel at that particular temperature, a crack develops.
In addition various geometric factors like keyway, sharp corners, notches etc. will produce stress
concentration which can also contribute crack development during rapid cooling.
Selecting appropriate quenching medium like oil, water, air etc. and also preheating the steel before
quenching helps to reduce quench cracks.
3. What is divorced pearlite and how does it form?

Divorced pearlite is a microstructural condition in steel that forms under certain cooling conditions
especially when cooling is too rapid than what is required for diffusion based conventional pearlite
formation but slower than the rate required to form martensite. It is characterized by separate ferrite
and cementite phases but the usual lamellar structure is disrupted and here cementite appear as
discrete particles due to which it is called divorced pearlite.
Presence of some alloying elements can promote the formation of divorced pearlite by influencing
the diffusion of carbon and cooling rates.
The lack of a regular lamellar structure leads to a reduction in toughness compared. Due to this, this
kind of heat treatment is useful when strong steels need to be soft during the manufacturing process
which later hardened before putting it to application.

Titto - AMT Assg 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Titto - AMT Assg 2

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Titto - AMT Assg 2

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

1.

A. Production of Forged Pieces (Hot Working)

B. Machining of the Sample Bar to Have Different Diameters

C. Application to have a great combination of toughness and strength

2. Explain the detailed mechanism of quench cracking in steel?

3. What is divorced pearlite and how does it form?

You might also like