HEAT TREATMENT

With focus on Steels

Bulk and Surface Treatments

Annealing, Normalizing, Hardening, Tempering

Hardenability

Principles of Heat Treatment of Steels

Romesh C Sharma
New Age International (P) Ltd., Publishers, New Delhi, 1993.

Heat Treatment of Steels

We have noted that how TTT and CCT diagrams can help us design heat treatments to
design the microstructure of steels and hence engineer the properties. In some cases a
gradation in properties may be desired (usually from the surface to the interior- a hard
surface with a ductile/tough interior/bulk).
The general classes of possibilities of treatment are: (i) Thermal (heat treatment), (ii)
Mechanical (working), (iii) Chemical (alteration of composition). A combination of these
treatments are also possible (e.g. thermo-mechanical treatments, thermo-chemical
treatments).
The treatment may affect the whole sample or only the bulk.
A typical industrial treatment cycle may be complicated with many steps (i.e. a
combination of the simple step which are outlined in the chapter).
Thermal (heat treatment)

Treatments

Mechanical
Chemical

Bulk
Surface

Or a combination
(Thermo-mechanical, thermo-chemical)

An overview of important heat treatments

HEAT TREATMENT

BULK
ANNEALING

SURFACE

NORMALIZING

HARDENING
&

THERMAL

TEMPERING
Full Annealing

MARTEMPERING

Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing

Spheroidization Annealing

Flame
Induction

AUSTEMPERING

LASER
Electron Beam

THERMOCHEMICAL
Carburizing
Nitriding
Carbo-nitriding

Ranges of temperature where Annealing, Normalizing and Spheroidization treatment are

carried out for hypo- and hyper-eutectoid steels.

910C

Acm

A3
Full Annealing

723C

A1

Stress Relief Annealing

Spheroidization

Recrystallization Annealing

Wt% C
0.8 %

Full Annealing

The steel is heated above A3 (for hypo-eutectoid steels) | A1 (for hyper-eutectoid steels) (hold) then the
steel is furnace cooled to obtain Coarse Pearlite
Coarse Pearlite has Hardness, Ductility
Not above Acm to avoid a continuous network of proeutectoid cementite along grain
boundaries ( path for crack propagation)

Ful

lA

910C

nne

alin
g

No
rma

liza

A3

tion

a
l iz
a
orm

n
tio

Acm

Full Annealing

723C

A1

Stress Relief Annealing

Spheroidization

Recrystallization Annealing
Wt% C
0.8 %

Recrystallization Annealing

Heat below A1 Sufficient time Recrystallization

Cold worked grains New stress free grains
Used in between processing steps (e.g. sheet rolling)

No

910oC

Ful
lA
A3

on
i
t
iza

rma

liza
tion
nne
alin
g

al
m
or

Acm

Full Annealing
723oC

A1

Spheroidization
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C

Stress Relief Annealing

Annihilation of dislocations,
polygonization

Residual stresses Heat below A1 Recovery

Welding
Differential cooling

Martensite formation

Machining and cold working

No

910oC

Ful
lA
A3

on
i
t
iza

rma

liza
tion
nne
alin
g

al
m
or

Acm

Full Annealing
723oC

A1

Spheroidization
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C

Spheroidization Annealing

Heat below/above A1 (long time)

Cementite plates Cementite spheroids Ductility
Used in high carbon steel requiring extensive machining prior to final hardening & tempering
Driving force is the reduction in interfacial energy

No

910oC

Ful
lA
A3

on
i
t
iza

rma

liza
tion
nne
alin
g

al
m
or

Acm

Full Annealing
723oC

A1

Spheroidization
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing
T

0.8 %
Wt% C

NORMALIZING

Heat above A3 | Acm Austenization Air cooling Fine Pearlite (Higher hardness)
910oC

No
rma
Ful
liza
lA
tion
nne
alin
A3
g

ion
zat
i
l
Acm
a
orm

Full Annealing
723oC

A1

Spheroidization
Recrystallization Annealing
Stress Relief Annealing

Purposes

0.8 %
Wt% C

Refine grain structure prior to hardening

To harden the steel slightly
To reduce segregation in casting or forgings

In hypo-eutectoid steels normalizing is done 50oC above the annealing temperature

In hyper-eutectoid steels normalizing done above Acm due to faster cooling
cementite does not form a continuous film along GB

HARDENING

Heat above A3 | Acm Austenization Quench (higher than critical cooling rate)

Quench produces residual strains

Transformation to Martensite is usually not complete (will have retained Austenite)
Martensite is hard and brittle
Tempering operation usually follows hardening; to give a good combination of
strength and toughness

Typical hardness test survey made along a

diameter of a quenched cylinder

Schematic showing variation in cooling

rate from surface to interior leading to
different microstructures

Severity of quench values of some typical quenching conditions

Process

Variable

H Value

Air

No agitation

0.02

Oil quench

No agitation

0.2

"

Slight agitation

0.35

"

Good agitation

0.5

"

Vigorous agitation

0.7

Water quench

No agitation

1.0

"

Vigorous agitation

1.5

Brine quench
(saturated Salt water)

No agitation

2.0

"

Vigorous agitation

5.0

Ideal quench

Severity of Quench as indicated by the heat

transfer equivalent H

f
K

[m1 ]

f heat transfer factor

K Thermal conductivity

Note that apart from the nature of the quenching medium, the vigorousness of the shake
determines the severity of the quench. When a hot solid is put into a liquid medium, gas bubbles
form on the surface of the solid (interface with medium). As gas has a poor conductivity the
quenching rate is reduced. Providing agitation (shaking the solid in the liquid) helps in bringing
the liquid medium in direct contact with the solid; thus improving the heat transfer (and the
cooling rate). The H value/index compares the relative ability of various media (gases and
liquids) to cool a hot solid. Ideal quench is a conceptual idea with a heat transfer factor of (
H = )

Schematic of Jominy End Quench Test

Jominy hardenability test

Variation of hardness along a Jominy bar

(schematic for eutectoid steel)

Tempering

' ( BCT )
Martensite

Temper

( BCC ) Fe3C (OR)

Ferrite

Cementite

Heat below Eutectoid temperature wait slow cooling

The microstructural changes which take place during tempering are very complex
Time temperature cycle chosen to optimize strength and toughness

Tool steel: As quenched (Rc 65) Tempered (Rc 45-55)

MARTEMPERING
To avoid residual stresses generated during quenching
Austenized steel is quenched above Ms for homogenization of temperature across the
sample
The steel is then quenched and the entire sample transforms simultaneously
Tempering follows
800
Eutectoid temperature
723
Austenite
Pearlite
600
+ Fe3C
500

Pearlite + Bainite

400

Bainite

Martempering

300

Austempering
AUSTEMPERING

Ms

200
Mf
100

Martensite
0.1

To avoid residual stresses generated during quenching

Austenized steel is quenched above Ms
Held long enough for transformation to Bainite

10

102
t (s)

103

104

105

ALLOY STEELS
Various elements like Cr, Mn, Ni, W, Mo etc are added to plain carbon steels to create
alloy steels
The alloys elements move the nose of the TTT diagram to the right
this implies that a slower cooling rate can be employed to obtain martensite
increased HARDENABILITY
The C curves for pearlite and bainite transformations overlap in the case of plain carbon
steels in alloy steels pearlite and bainite transformations can be represented by separate
C curves