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Annealing (metallurgy)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered,
causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness. It is a process that produces
conditions by heating to above the re-crystallization temperature and maintaining a suitable
temperature, and then cooling. Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal
stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous, and improve cold working properties.

In the cases of copper, steel, silver, and brass this process is performed by substantially heating the
material (generally until glowing) for a while and allowing it to cool slowly. In this fashion the metal is
softened and prepared for further work such as shaping, stamping, or forming. It also presents no
problem with decarburization.

Contents
„ 1 Thermodynamics of annealing
„ 1.1 Stages of annealing
„ 2 Annealing in a controlled atmosphere
„ 3 Setup and Equipment
„ 4 Diffusion annealing of semiconductors
„ 5 Specialized annealing cycles
„ 5.1 Normalization
„ 5.2 Process annealing
„ 5.3 Full anneal
„ 5.4 Short cycle anneal
„ 6 See also
„ 7 References
„ 8 External links

Thermodynamics of annealing
Annealing occurs by the diffusion of atoms within a solid material, so that the material progresses
towards its equilibrium state. Heat is needed to increase the rate of diffusion by providing the
energy needed to break bonds. The movement of atoms has the effect of redistributing and
destroying the dislocations in metals and (to a lesser extent) in ceramics. This alteration in
dislocations allows metals to deform more easily, so increases their ductility.

The amount of process-initiating Gibbs free energy in a deformed metal is also reduced by the
annealing process. In practice and industry, this reduction of Gibbs free energy is termed "stress
relief".

The relief of internal stresses is a thermodynamically spontaneous process; however, at room

temperatures, it is a very slow process. The high temperatures at which the annealing process
occurs serve to accelerate this process.

The reaction facilitating the return of the cold-worked metal to its stress-free state has many
reaction pathways, mostly involving the elimination of lattice vacancy gradients within the body of

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the metal. The creation of lattice vacancies are governed by the Arrhenius equation, and the
migration/diffusion of lattice vacancies are governed by Fick’s laws of diffusion.[1]

Mechanical properties, such as hardness and ductility, change as dislocations are eliminated and the
metal's crystal lattice is altered. On heating at specific temperature and cooling it is possible to
bring the atom at the right lattice site and new grain growth can improve the mechanical properties.

Stages of annealing

There are three stages in the annealing process, with the first being the recovery phase, which
results in softening of the metal through removal of crystal defects (the primary type of which is the
linear defect called a dislocation) and the internal stresses which they cause. Recovery phase
covers all annealing phenomena that occur before the appearance of new strain-free grains.[2] The
second phase is recrystallization, where new strain-free grains nucleate and grow to replace those
deformed by internal stresses.[2] If annealing is allowed to continue once recrystallization has been
completed, grain growth will occur, in which the microstructure starts to coarsen and may cause the
metal to have less than satisfactory mechanical properties.

Annealing in a controlled atmosphere

The low temperature of annealing (about 50 °F above C3 line) may result in oxidation of the
metal’s surface, resulting in scale. If scale is to be avoided, annealing is carried out in an oxygen-,
carbon-, and nitrogen-free atmosphere (to avoid oxidation, carburization, and nitriding respectively)
such as endothermic gas (a mixture of carbon monoxide, hydrogen gas, and nitrogen).

The magnetic properties of mu-metal (Espey cores) are introduced by annealing the alloy in a
hydrogen atmosphere.

Setup and Equipment

Typically, large ovens are used for the annealing process. The inside of the oven is large enough to
place the workpiece in a position to receive maximum exposure to the circulating heated air. For
high volume process annealing, gas fired conveyor furnaces are often used. For large workpieces or
high quantity parts Car-bottom furnaces will be used in order to move the parts in and out with
ease. Once the annealing process has been successfully completed, the workpieces are sometimes
left in the oven in order for the parts to have a controled cooling process. While some workpieces
are left in the oven to cool in a controled fashion, other materials and alloys are removed from the
oven. After being removed from the oven, the workpieces are often quickly cooled off in a process
known as quench hardening. Some typical methods of quench hardening materials involve the use of
mediums such as air, water, oil, or salt.

Diffusion annealing of semiconductors

In the semiconductor industry, silicon wafers are annealed, so that dopant atoms, usually boron,
phosphorus or arsenic, can diffuse into substitutional positions in the crystal lattice, resulting in
drastic changes in the electrical properties of the semiconducting material.

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Specialized annealing cycles

Normalization

Normalization is an annealing process in which a metal is cooled in air after heating.

This process is typically confined to hardenable steel. It is used to refine grains which have been
deformed through cold work, and can improve ductility and toughness of the steel. It involves
heating the steel to just above its upper critical point. It is soaked for a short period then allowed to
cool in air. Small grains are formed which give a much harder and tougher metal with normal tensile
strength and not the maximum ductility achieved by annealing.

Process annealing

Process annealing, also called "intermediate annealing", "subcritical annealing", or "in-process

annealing", is a heat treatment cycle that restores some of the ductility to a work piece allowing it
be worked further without breaking. Ductility is important in shaping and creating a more refined
piece of work through processes such as rolling, drawing, forging, spinning, extruding and heading.
The piece is heated to a temperature typically below the austenizing temperature, and held there for
long enough to relieve stresses in the metal. The piece is finally cooled slowly in to room
temperature. It is then ready again for additional cold working. This can also be used to ensure there
is reduced risk of distortion of the work piece during machining, welding, or further heat treatment
cycles.

The temperature range for process annealing is ranges from 500 °F to 1400 °F, depending on the
alloy in question.

Full anneal

A full anneal typically results in the most ductile

state a metal can assume for metal alloy. It
creates an entirely new homogeneous and uniform
structure with good dynamic properties. To
perform a full anneal, a metal is heated to its
annealing point (about 50°C above the austenic
temperature as graph shows) and held for
sufficient time to allow the material to fully
austenitize, to form austenite or austenite-
cementite grain structure. The material is then
allowed to cool slowly so that the equilibrium
microstructure is obtained. In some cases this Full annealing temperature ranges
means the material is allowed to air cool. In other
cases the material is allowed to furnace cool. The
details of the process depend on the type of metal and the precise alloy involved. In any case the
result is a more ductile material that has greater stretch ratio and reduction of area properties but a
lower yield strength and a lower tensile strength. This process is also called LP annealing for
lamellar pearlite in the steel industry as opposed to a process anneal which does not specify a

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microstructure and only has the goal of softening the material. Often material that is annealed will
be machined and then be followed by further heat treatment to obtain the final desired properties.

Short cycle anneal

Short cycle annealing is used for turning normal ferrite into malleable ferrite. It consists of heating,
cooling, and then heating again from 4 to 8 hours.

See also
„ Annealing (glass)
„ Austenite
„ Heat treatment
„ Hollomon-Jaffe parameter
„ Low hydrogen annealing
„ Tempering

References
1. ^ Van Vlack, L.H. Elements of Materials Science and Engineering, Addison-Wesley, 1985, p 134
2. ^ a b Verhoeven, J.D. Fundamentals of Physical Metallurgy, Wiley, New York, 1975, p. 326

External links
„ Annealing with induction: Ameritherm offers annealing overview and Application Notes
„ Annealing:efunda - engineering fundamentals
„ Full Annealing:Material Science

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_(metallurgy) 3/15/2009