Heat-Treatment of

Metals
Heat-Treatment
 Heat treatment is a method used to alter the
physical, and sometimes chemical properties
of a material. The most common application is
metallurgical
 It involves the use of heating or chilling,
normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve
a desired result such as hardening or
softening of a material
It applies only to processes where the heating
and cooling are done for the specific purpose
of altering properties intentionally
Generally, heat treatment uses phase
transformation during heating and cooling to
change a microstructure in a solid state.
Types of Heat-Treatment (Steel)

 Annealing
 Tempering, and Quenching
 Precipitation hardening
 Case hardening
Annealing
A heat treatment process in which a metal is exposed to an
elevated temperature for an extended time period and
then slowly cooled.
Purpose:
1.Relieve stresses of cold working
2.Increase softness, ductility and toughness
3.Produce specific microstructure
Annealing
Three Stages of Annealing
1. Heating to a desired temperature
2. Holding or soaking at that temperature
3. Cooling usually to room temperature
Note: Time in above procedures is important
- During heating and cooling, there is a change in temp gradient.
If rate of temp change is too high, temp gradients will induce
internal stress and hence cracking


1  3
T
T α+Fe3C
α+Fe3C

Time
Time
Types of Annealing
1. Stress-Relief Annealing (or Stress-relieving)
2. Normalizing
3. Full Annealing
4. Spheroidizing Annealing (or Spheroidizing )
5. Isothermal Annealing
Temp Ranges in Fe-C Phase Diagram
-
A1. Lower
critical Temp
A3. Upper 
critical Temp for
Hypo- eutectoid T   Fe3C
steels
Acm. Upper
critical Temp for
 
Hyper- eutectoid Eutectoid
steels

α+Fe3C
Temp Ranges for Annealing Processes
1. Stress-Relief Annealing
 Itis an annealing
process below the
transformation
temperature A1, with
subsequent slow
cooling, the aim of
which is to reduce
the internal residual
stresses in a
workpiece without
intentionally
changing its structure
and mechanical
properties
1. Stress-Relief Annealing
 For plain carbon and low-alloy steels the
temperature to which the specimen is heated
is usually between 450 and 650˚C, whereas for
hot-working tool steels and high-speed steels it
is between 600 and 750˚C
 This treatment will not cause any phase
changes, but recovery & recrystallization may
take place.
 Machining allowance sufficient to
compensate for any warping/distortion
resulting from stress relieving should be
provided
Causes of Residual Stresses
1.Mechanical factors (e.g., cold-working during
metal forming/machining)
2.Thermal factors (e.g., thermal stresses caused
by temperature gradients within the work-piece
during heating or cooling)
3.Metallurgical factors (e.g., phase
transformation upon cooling wherein parent and
product phases have different densities

- In the heat treatment of metals, quenching or

rapid cooling is the cause of the greatest residual
stresses
Stress Relief Annealing –
Temperature & Time Vs Stresses

 Higher temperatures and

longer times of annealing
bring residual stresses to
lower levels
 All kinds of times (heating
time, soaking time,
cooling time)
Stress Relief Annealing –
Cooling Rate Vs Stresses
 The residual stress level after stress-relief annealing will be
maintained only if the cool down from the annealing
temperature is controlled and slow enough that no new
internal stresses arise.
 New stresses that may be induced during cooling depend
on:

(1)Cooling rate
(2)Cross-sectional size of the
work- piece, and
(3)Composition of
the steel
2. Normalizing
 A heat treatment process
consisting of austenitizing at
temperatures of 50–80˚C above
upper critical temperature (A1 ,
Acm) followed by slow cooling
(usually in air)
 The aim of which is to obtain a
fine- grained, uniformly
distributed, ferrite– pearlite
structure
 Normalizing is applied mainly to
unalloyed and low-alloy hypo-
eutectoid steels
 For hypereutectoid steels the
austenitizing temperature is 50–
80˚C above the ACm
transformation temperature
Normalizing – Heating and Cooling

Purpose of soaking:
1. To allow metal to
attain uniform temp
2. All the austenite
A3
transform into
pearlite, especially
A1
for hyper-eutectoid
compositions
Normalizing – Austenitizing
Temperature Range
1. Depend on
composition
2. Increase in C %
reduces temp for
hypo-eutectoid steels
3. Increase in C %
increases temp for
hypo-eutectoid steels
Effect of Normalizing on Grain Size
 Normalizing refines (reduces) the grains of a steel
that have become coarse (long and irregular) as
a result of heavy deformations as in forging or in
rolling
 The fine grains have higher toughness than
coarse grains,

Steel
with
0.5% C
Normalizing after Rolling

 After hot rolling, the

structure of steel is
usually oriented in the
rolling direction
 To remove the
oriented structure and
obtain the uniform
mechanical properties
in all directions, a
normalizing annealing
has to be performed
Normalizing after Forging
 After forging at high temperatures,
especially with work-pieces that
vary widely in cross sectional size,
because of the different rates of
cooling from the forging
temperature, a heterogeneous
structure is obtained that can be
made uniform by normalizing
Normalizing is also done to improve
machinability of low-c steels
Normalizing – Holding Time

 Holdingtime at austenitizing temperature

may be calculated using the empirical
formula:
t = 60 + D
where t is the holding time (min) and D is the
maximum diameter of the workpiece
(mm).
3. Full Annealing
- For compositions less than eutectoid, the metal is heated above
A3 line to form austenite
- For compositions larger than eutectoid, the metal is heated
above A1 line to form austenite and Fe3C
- Cooled slowly in a furnace instead in air as in Normalizing.
Furnace is switched off, both metal and furnace cool at the same
rate
Usually applied for low
-Microstructure outcome: Coarse and medium C steel
Pearlite.
-Structure is relatively softer than
that in Normalizing
-Full annealing is normally used
when material needs to be
deformed further.
4. Spheroidizing Annealing
 It is also called as Soft Annealing
 Any process of heating and cooling steel that produces a
rounded or globular form of carbide (Fe3C)
 It is an annealing process at temperatures close below
or close above the A1 temperature, with subsequent slow
cooling
 Used for Medium & High C-Steels

- Spheroidite can form   Fe3C

at lower temperatures but the
time needed drastically
increases, as this is a diffusion-   Fe3C
controlled process.
Spheroidizing: How to Perform it
 By heating alloy at a
temp just below A1
(700C). If pre-cursor
structure is pearlite,
process time will range
b/w 15 & 25Hrs
 Heating alloy just above
A1 line and then either
cooling very slowly in
the furnace or holding
at a Temp just below A1
 Heating & cooling
alternatively within ±50C
of the A1 line.
Spheroidizing - Purpose
 The aim is to produce a soft structure by changing all
hard micro-constituents like pearlite, bainite, and
martensite (especially in steels with carbon contents
above 0.5% and in tool steels) into a structure of
spheroidized carbides in a ferritic matrix

(a) a medium-carbon low-alloy steel after soft annealing at 720C;

(b) a high-speed steel soft annealed at 820C.
Spheroidizing - Uses

 Such a soft structure is required for good

machinability of steels having more than
0.6%C and for all cold-working processes
that include plastic deformation.
 Spheroidite steel is the softest and most
ductile form of steel
5. Isothermal Annealing
 Spheroidizing is more useful for improving machinability of
high C steel than that of low and medium C steels.
 In fact, spherodized low and medium C steels become over
soft for machining and give long shavings which accumulate
on tool cutting edge and produce poor surface.
 Hypoeutectoid low-carbon steels as well as medium-carbon
structural steels are often isothermally annealed, for best
machinability
 An isothermally annealed structure should have the following
characteristics:
1. High proportion of ferrite
2. Uniformly distributed pearlite grains
3. Fine lamellar pearlite grains
Process – Isothermal Annealing
 Austenitizing followed
by a fast cooling to
the temperature
range of pearlite
formation (usually ?
about 650˚C.)
 Holding at this
temperature until the
complete
transformation of 
pearlite
 and cooling to room
temperature at an
arbitrary cooling rate
  Fe3C
• Next Class to consider phase transformation
diagrams …
Iron-C Phase Diagram