2.

8 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

MK Banerjee, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, India
r 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

2.8.1 Introduction 180

2.8.2 Medium-Carbon Low-Alloy Steels or Plain-Carbon Steel 181
2.8.2.1 Forging Quality Steel 181
2.8.2.1.1 Annealing 181
2.8.2.1.2 Normalizing 181
2.8.2.2 Precipitation Hardened Martensitic Steels 181
2.8.2.3 Heat Treatment of 9Ni4Co Steel 184
2.8.2.4 Heat Treatment of AF1410 Steel 185
2.8.2.5 Press Hardenable Ultrahigh-Strength Steel 186
2.8.2.6 Nanoscale Precipitations Hardenable Steel 187
2.8.2.7 Medium-Carbon Low-Alloy Steel 188
2.8.2.8 Si-Modified 4340 Steel 188
2.8.2.9 Ni–Cr Structural Steel 189
2.8.2.10 Medium-Carbon Chromium–Vanadium Steel 192
2.8.2.11 Chromium–Molybdenum Steel: Steel for High-Temperature Boiler Application 192
2.8.3 Spring Steel 192
2.8.4 Silicon Steel 195
2.8.5 Bearing Steel 196
2.8.6 Hadfield Steel 197
2.8.7 Stainless Steel 199
2.8.7.1 Martensitic Stainless Steel 199
2.8.7.2 Ferritic Stainless Steel 200
2.8.7.3 Austenitic Stainless Steel 200
2.8.7.4 Duplex Stainless Steel 204
2.8.7.5 Precipitation Hardenable Stainless Steel 204
2.8.8 Maraging Steel 205
2.8.8.1 Heat-Treatment Sequence of Maraging Steels 207
2.8.8.2 Embrittlement in Maraging Steel 207
2.8.9 Heat Treatment of Transformation Induced Plasticity Steel 208
2.8.10 Dual Phase Steels 208
2.8.10.1 Rapid Heating Producing Ultrafine Grained Dual Phase Steel 210
2.8.10.2 Bake Hardened Dual Phase Steels 211
2.8.11 Heat Treatment of Steel Casting 211
References 212
Further Reading 213

2.8.1 Introduction
The steels having common engineering applications are quite
often commercially important; sometimes huge requirements
of certain class of steels for specific application area make
them attractive to manufacturing industries. Paradigm shift of
design philosophy has raised the demand for development
new and high-performing steels for commercial applications at
less cost. In general the commercially important steels may be
grouped as structural steels, automotive steels, ultrahigh
strength steels for critical applications, abrasion and shock
resistance steels, and above all stainless steels; being low-,
medium-, or high-alloy steels of varying carbon contents, the
above mentioned commercially important steels have posed
additional challenges in heat-treatment practices to insure
improved mechanical and mechano-chemical properties.
Therefore in the present chapter, attempts are made to dis-
cuss the basic principles underlying heat treatment of some
important commercial steels. This encompasses discussion of
the whole spectrum of commercially important steels ranging
from medium carbon commercial steels with low or no alloy
contents to the present generation advanced high-strength steel
(AHSS). Present trend in development of ultrahigh-strength
steels envisages the modification of AF1410 or AerMet 1000
steels. This calls for newer strategy for heat treating these steels.
Special attention is also paid in designing the heat treatment of
this class of steels. Current interest in development of new
generation AHSSs for safe, reliable, and cost-effective applica-
tion in automotive sectors is also duly regarded while describing
the heat-treatment challenges of these steels.
Evolution of microstructure during heat treatment of the
steels under consideration is also followed so as to gather a

180 Comprehensive Materials Finishing, Volume 2 doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803581-8.09190-6

 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
better understanding of their processing–structure–property
relationship. Moreover the criticality of phase transformation
associated with the heat treatment of maraging steels is elabo-
rated in the current chapter. Heat-treatment processes of differ-
ent varieties of stainless steels, its limitations, and protocol to
develop suitable microstructure are separately discussed. There
are always some constraints in industrial heat-treatment practice.
Taking example of austenitic manganese steels and other steel
castings in general, efforts are made to explain how a heat treater
can overcome the difficulty confronting the achievement of
ideal microstructures in real life industrial situation.
2.8.2 Medium-Carbon Low-Alloy Steels or Plain-
Carbon Steel
2.8.2.1 Forging Quality Steel
It is known that forging quality steels are used in production of
gears and tooth wheels in automobile sector. In present sce-
nario the objective of profitable production of above auto-
motive components are to:
1. achieve a very high strength and toughness,
2. adopt shortest possible heat-treatment cycle, and
3. improve damage tolerance.
The commercially important forging quality plain-carbon
steels include AISI 1040 and 1045 steels along with other
similar ones.
Medium-carbon steels are known to be quite suitable for
applications where a good combination of strength, toughness,
and wear resistance is required. AISI 1045 is one such medium-
carbon steel which is used for manufacturing of forged parts
which require sufficient strength and toughness for applications
as crank-shafts and couplings. These medium-carbon steels are
normally forged from 1250 to 1200 1C, finished forging tem-
perature being 950–1000 1C. However the forging temperature
depends upon the geometry and amount of deformation to be
given during forging. The forged components are subjected to
the following heat treatment.
2.8.2.1.1 Annealing
Full annealing of the forged steel components is accomplished
at a temperature between 900 and 850 1C followed by slow
cooling at 10 1C h
1 till 600 1C; afterward the stock may be air
cooled.
2.8.2.1.2 Normalizing
Normalizing of the annealed component is carried out by
heating at 870 1C, holding for sufficient time and then cooling
the components in still air. A lower temperature around
850 1C is preferred for normalizing in the event, it is the final
heat treatment. The normalized stock is then hardened from a
temperature of 850 1C; quenching is normally carried out in
oil. Depending upon the application of a component, induc-
tion hardening is carried out by quickly heating it to the
desired case depth and then quenching in water. The induction
hardened parts are normally tempered at a low temperature
like 150–200 1C to reduce the residual stress without much
affecting the hardness at the surface of the component, which
is normally kept at Rc 56–58. For the volume hardened
181
material, the tempering temperature ranges between 400 and
675 1C in accordance with the required mechanical properties.
Microstructural changes accompanying heat treatment of AISI
1045 steel is shown in Figures 1(a)–1(c).
The low-alloy steel so far used for such components is
42CrMo4, whose composition is shown in Table 1.
Heat-treatment cycle of 42CrMo4 steel is as follows:
1. Normalized from 880 to 900 1C after holding for 1 h per
25 mm thickness.
2. Hardening is done after heating to 860–880 1C; holding is
done for sufficient period of time, and finally quenched in
oil at 80 1C.
3. Tempering is carried out at suitable temperature between
530 and 680 1C. The exact tempering temperature is
determined by final property required.
In general this class of steels is used in quenched and
tempered condition; by controlling the heat-treatment process,
it is possible to derive the required properties of the steels.1
The structural changes taking place due to forging of varying
amount and post-forging cooling rates is shown in Figure 1(d).
However the recent trend for shortening the process route
has led to emergence of ferrite-pearlite precipitation hardenable
steel, 38MnVS6. The composition of 38MnVS6 and a modified
version of precipitation hardenable ferrite-pearlite steels is
shown in Table 1. The microstructure of precipitation hardened
ferrite-pearlite steels against quenched and tempered one is
shown in Figure 2.
The steel is heated to a temperature around 1150 1C to dis-
solve all carbides in solution so that a homogenous austenite is
available.
After forging the rate of cooling is controlled because it is a
very important parameter for control of microstructure in alloy
steel. After forging the components are cooled in air. The cooling
rate should preferably be within the range of 1–5 1C s
1. This
rate of cooling must be continued till the component attains
a temperature of 600 1C. The microstructure shows ferrite-
pearlite structure with very fine precipitates of vanadium carbide
(Figure 2). The high ultimate tensile strength above 900 MPa
with impact strength around 20 J is achievable in both
38MnVS6 and the modified version precipitation hardened
ferrite-pearlite steels.
2.8.2.2 Precipitation Hardened Martensitic Steels
A class of martensitic steels is strengthened by secondary
hardening to impart ultrahigh strength at high-toughness level.
AF1410 belongs to this class of steels and contains appreciable
amount of nickel and cobalt. Due to high nickel content the
steel exhibits a low ductile-to-brittle transition temperature; on
the contrary cobalt aids in precipitation hardening and high-
temperature strength.4–6 Another class of steel, AerMet100, is
so developed as to impart strength both by precipitation of
intermetallic and alloy carbides. Heat treatment of these steels
comprises of austenitizing, quenching to room temperature,
and then tempering or aging to effect the precipitation of
intermetallics and alloy carbides. Alloying elements in these
two classes of steel are so chosen that the transformation of
austenite may take place at sufficiently low temperatures. The
low-temperature transformation products of austenite viz.
182 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

Figure 1 Microstructures of AISI 1045 steel (a) quenched, (b) quenched and tempered at 200 1C, and (c) quenched and tempered at 540 1C. (d)
Microstructure of the heat-treatable 42CrMo4 steel for cooling rate 15 Ks
1 (left) and 0.07 Ks
1 (right); above – without deformation, middle –
deformation level 30%, and below – deformation level 60%.2 Vander Voort, G. F. Microstructure of Carbon and Low-Alloy Steels.

lower bainite/martensite are generally produced after quenching
of these steels. Aging of these steels are carried out at sufficiently
high temperature so that slow diffusing substitutional alloying
elements can have adequate mobility to form their carbides or
intermetallic compounds with elements other than carbon. The
heat treatment of these steels is controlled in such manner that
a fine-scale microstructure is achieved to insure higher fracture
resistance.
The other steels of this type include HY180 and HP 9–4–20
which led to further development of similar type of steels with
improved properties. HY180 steel contains 0.10 wt% carbon,
10 wt% nickel, 8 wt% cobalt, 2 wt% chromium, and 1 wt%
molybdenum. After heat treatment, the mechanical property
of this steel becomes significantly superior to many high-
strength steels.7–8 A 5 h tempering at 510 1C achieves yield
strength of 1250 MPa. The Charpy impact energy of the
said steel is found to decrease with increasing tempering
temperature above 300 1C till 425 1C; Charpy impact energy
attains its minimum value at 425 1C. However tempering at
temperatures greater than 425 1C leads to increase in its
Charpy impact energy value; its maximum value is attained by
tempering the steel at 510 1C. It should be noted that tem-
pering above 425 1C produces intra-lath carbides of type M2C,
which is beneficial to impact strength. Cementite does not
form and the needles of these alloy carbide particles are very
fine with length being around 10 nm. However multiple heat
treatments of HP 9–4–30 steels can lead to further structural
refinement with associated improvement in properties. The
microstructures of these steels are shown in Figure 3.
Cobalt is known to delay recovery processes till a high
temperature like 500 1C; the delay in recovery helps to retain
the dislocation structure within the material. Thus sites for
nucleation of alloy carbides increase many folds and hence
numerous fine sized carbides result in the microstructure. Also
cobalt increases the activity of carbon in ferrite and thus helps
in formation of more carbide. It is also known that higher
chromium content in the steels results in more rapid coar-
sening of the alloy carbides and shifts the secondary hardening
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 183

Figure 1 (Continued).

Table 1 Chemical composition of forging quality steel (wt %)

Type C Si Mn Cr Mo Nb Ti V Fe

AISI1045 0.43–0.50 0.15–0.30 0.60–0.90 – – – – – Balance

42CrMo4 0.42 0.30 0.80 1 0.20 – – – Balance
38MnVS6 0.38 0.60 1.40 0.04 0.03 – – 0.10 Balance
PHFP-M 0.36 0.70 1.45 0.15 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.2 Balance

peak to lower tempering temperatures. Increasing the molyb-
denum content has the opposite effect. This has led to the
discovery of AF1410 whose chemical composition approx-
imates 0.16 wt% C, 14 wt% Co, 10 wt% Ni, 2 wt% Cr, and
1 wt% Mo. Alike HY180, AF1410 steel is tempered for 5 h at
510 1C and achieves a yield strength of about 1500 MPa pre-
sumably due to higher carbon and cobalt content.
However, AF1410, achieves its maximum yield strength after
tempering at 475 1C, not at 510 1C as it is for HY180. This
minimum in the toughness as experienced after tempering at
425 1C is ascribed to availability of minimum amount of
retained austenite due to its decomposition with the precipita-
tion of cementite. Carpenter Technology developed still higher
strength version of this alloy in the name of AerMet100, with a
chemical composition of 0.25 wt% C, 13.4 wt% Co, 11.5 wt%
Ni, 2.5 wt% Cr, and 1.2 wt% Mo.
Similar to AF1410, the maximum in the yield strength of
AerMet100 is obtained after tempering at 475 1C. AerMet100
steel also records the minimum Charpy impact energy on
tempering at about 425 1C. AF1410 steel can be strengthened
more at higher cobalt content as it ensures higher scope for
increasing the carbon content of the steel; it is known that
higher carbon content in martensite is responsible for higher
hardness of iron–carbon martensite. However the disadvantage
of increase in carbon content is realized in having the Ms
and Mf temperatures depressed to below room temperature;
it is required to elevate these temperature to above room
temperature so that one can secure 100% martensite after
quenching the steel. Cobalt is an alloying element which,
unlike most of the alloying elements in steel, is capable to raise
the Ms and Mf temperatures. So cobalt content is increased
from 8 to 14% to achieve Ms and Mf temperatures at 327 and
166 1C respectively. Thus a window for increasing the carbon
content is now available and this is how AF1410 steel could be
modified with composition of 0.17C–10Ni–14Co–2Cr–1Mo
with varying amounts of titanium. This gives rise to better
184 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
mechanical properties than AF1410 steel which contains 0.13%
carbon at 8% cobalt level. The same strategy is employed
to design the steel, AerMet100,9–10 with the chemistry,
Figure 2 Typical pearlite and ferrite microstructure of air-cooled
microalloyed forging steel.3 Caminaga, C.; Button, S. T. Mechanical
Properties of Ausforged 27MnSiVS6 Microalloyed Steel. Metall. Mater.,
REM:R.Esc Minas, Ouro Preto 2013, 66 (3), 331–338.
Figure 3 Microstructure of (a) HP 9–4–20 showing tempered martensite, (b) HP 9–4–30 showing tempered martensite, and (c) HP – 9–4–30
grade showing grain refined structure after multiple heat treatment, X400. Rush, H. F. NASA Technical Memorandum 85816, Grain Refining Heat
Treatment to Improve Cryogenic Toughness of High Strength Steel, 1984.
0.23C–14Co–12Ni–3Cr–2Mo; here higher carbon content with
simultaneous increase in carbide formers can give rise to very
high strength upon quenching from 900 to 950 1C followed by
tempering at 620–650 1C. The strength of this steel can go as
high as 1950 Mpa with KIc around 126 Mpa m1/2.
2.8.2.3 Heat Treatment of 9Ni4Co Steel
This type of steels has emerged in early 1960s, due to require-
ment of high fracture toughness at high strength. Commercially
known steels under this category are HP 9–4–20 and HP
9–4–30. HP 9–4–20 contains 9% Ni, 4% Co, with 0.20% C;
whereas the carbon content is 0.30% in the other variety. These
steels possess very high hardenability and presence of 4% Co
help to minimize the retained austenite amount in hardened
microstructure as cobalt is known to raise the Ms temperature.
The heat-treatment cycle of HP9–4–30 steel is as follows:
• Normalizing is done from 900 1C, after holding at the
normalizing temperature for 1 h. per 25 mm thickness.
• Spheroidizing annealing is performed by way of heating to
620 1C and holding it there for 24 h followed by air
cooling.
• Alternately multiple annealing from temperature of 700–
630 1C with holding time of 4 h at each annealing tem-
perature may be used to produce spheroidized structure. The
objective of spheroidizing treatment is that homogenization
of austenite for hardening can be facilitated by prior spher-
oidized microstructure.
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
• For hardening, the steel is austenitized at 850 1C and
soaked for 1 h for each 25 mm thickness. This homogenous
austenite may be water quenched to ensure complete
martensitic transformation. These steels may be subjected
to subzero treatment at
75 1C with a holding time of 1 h
and then bringing back to room temperature.
• Tempering is carried out between 300 and 600 1C
depending upon the desired strength and ductility prop-
erty. Most widely used tempering process is a double
tempering between 550 and 575 1C, with sufficient hold
time at that temperature. Stress relieving at 560 1C for 24 h
may be carried out if steel is required to be welded prior to
heat treatment. Stress relieving annealing should be carried
out by holding for prolonged period of time at elevated
temperature and then cooling to room temperature in still
air. The micro structures of these steels under various heat-
treatment conditions are shown in Figure 3.
2.8.2.4 Heat Treatment of AF1410 Steel
The steel of chemical composition, 0.13–0.17% C; 0.1% Si;
1.8–2.2% Cr; 9.5–10.5% Ni; 0.9–1.1% Mo; 13.5–14.5% Co is
described as another variety of ultrahigh strength steels with
high fracture toughness and has been developed by US defense
for application in submarine structures. The microstructure of
this steel consists of lath martensite with dispersed carbides; the
general optical microstructure shown in Figure 4 exhibits tem-
pered martensite. The carbide precipitates are formed during
tempering and thus give rise to precipitation strengthening. The
steel may also subjected to secondary hardening by tempering
the workpiece at high temperature above 550 1C which gives
rise to the formation of reverted austenite; this improves the
impact strength of the steel.
The recommended heat-treatment practice for this steel is
as follows:
• Normalizing is carried out as usual to achieve higher
machinability. The component is heated in the temperature
range 880–900 1C, held there for 1 h per 25 mm thickness
of section and then air cooled. Following air cooling the
steel can be aged at 650–675 1C for 3–6 h. After machining
Figure 4 Tempered martensitic microstructure of AF-1410 ultrahigh-
strength steel, tint aged  100. George F. Vander Voort, Director,
Research and Technology, Buehler Ltd in The Microstructure of
Ferrous Alloys.
185
the stress relieving annealing is carried out at 675 1C, to
relieve the mechanical stresses induced due to machining.
• Hardening heat treatment consists of austenitization at
temperature of 880 1C where the steel is to be held for 1 h
per 25 mm section thickness; then the steel is quenched in
oil, if the maximum section size of the article is more than
75 mm. If the maximum section size is 50 mm or less, air
quenching can be employed to produce martensite in the
hardened steel. The subzero treatment at
70 1C may be
practiced if 100% martensite formation is not possible due
to large section size of the heat-treating component.
• Tempering is carried out at 550–570 1C, and holding time
at this tempering temperature is normally 5–6 h. It appears
from Figure 5 that secondary hardening peak is attained
at 480 1C and aging beyond this temperature tends to
soften the material with concurrent improvement in impact
strength. Also at a temperature of 510 1C maximum im-
provement in impact property is obtained. This is ascribed
to the fact that aging at such high temperature for a pro-
longed period of time like 6 h leads to the formation of
solute rich austenite due to competitive austenite forma-
tion. This high solute austenite has a low Ms temperature
and therefore after cooling from the tempering temperature
to room temperature, the reverted austenite exists in the
microstructure. This reverted austenite does not transform
to martensite upon cooling from the tempering tempera-
ture. The reverted austenite present in the microstructure
confers very high-impact strength in these materials. The
same features are observed in AerMet 100 steel which
contains higher carbon than AF1410. The microstructures
of AerMet 100 steel under different heat-treatment condi-
tions (Figures 6 and 7) clearly show that increasing
Figure 5 Mechanical properties versus aging temperature of AF1410
Steel. ASM Handbook, Vol. 4; p. 522.
186 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

Figure 6 Microstructures of Aer Met 100 steel (a) Austenitized at 1090 1C, air cooled, aged at 675 1C for 5 h, showing lath martensite at  100
(b) Needle-shaped precipitates of M2C in Aer Met 100 steel.11 (a) George F. Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology Buehler Ltd in ‘The
Microstructure of Ferrous Alloys’; (b) Wang, L.; Liu, L.; Cheng Xiao; Liu, X.; Chen, C.; Kang, M. Investigation of Transformation for Ultrahigh
Strength Steel AerMet 100. J. Mater. Sci. Tech. 2000, 16 (5), 491–494.

Figure 7 High-temperature tempering of AerMet 100 (530 1C) shows (a) reverted austenite and coarse needles of M2C, and (b) dark-field image
of (a). Wang, L.; Liu, L.; Cheng Xiao; Liu, X.; Chen, C.; Kang, M. Investigation of Transformation for Ultrahigh Strength Steel AerMet 100. J. Mater.
Sci. Tech. 2000, 16 (5), 491–494.

tempering temperature leads to the coarsening of needle-
shaped M2C precipitates with concurrent formation of
reverted austenite.
The dark-field TEM image in Figure 7(b) gives clear evidence
of reverted austenite which is stated to be responsible for high-
impact strength of AerMet100 or AF 1410 steel after tempering
at high temperatures.
2.8.2.5 Press Hardenable Ultrahigh-Strength Steel
A new-generation martensitic steel of composition, 0.25C–
0.40Si–1.40Mn–0.5 (Cr þ Mo)–0.005B–0.05Ti–0.05Nb pos-
sesses a very high strength. The steel is quenched during
pressing and then followed by controlled tempering. The
quenched and tempered microstructure showing the presence
of martensites is shown in Figure 8. The quenched and tem-
pered steel derives its strength from precipitation hardening
along with transformation hardening due to formation of
martensite. Molybdenum strengthens the grain boundaries;
also it lowers the activity of carbon in ferrite which makes it
less susceptible to grain boundary precipitation. Niobium is
used for grain refinement of austenite. The fine grained aus-
tenite, while being quenched to undergo martensitic trans-
formation, would give rise to smaller martensite packet size.
This is highly favorable in imparting extra strength to the steel.
The emerging concept of light-weight technology, has led to
the birth of press hardened steel which is invoked recently as a
token of new-generation technology in automobile industry.
Addition of Titanium helps to avoid segregation of boron
nitride at the grain boundaries. Free boron is now available to
segregate at the grain boundaries; thus boron does not leave
much space for the nucleation of proeutectoid ferrite and it
is how boron may exert its hardenability raising effect.
22MnB5 is the commonly used press hardenable steel. Shift of
Bs temperature to longer times and lower temperatures is
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 187

Figure 8 Microstructure showing martensites of fine packet size; prior austenite grain boundary is also revealed in the steel after typical press
hardenable steel heat treatment.12 Bian, J.; Mohrbacher, H. Novel Alloying Design for Press Hardening Steels with Crash Performance. In
International Symposium on New Developments in AHSS, PR-294–026–2013, USA. Available at: www.niobelcon.com/NiobelCon/publications_files
(accessed February 17, 2016).

Figure 9 Microstructure of 22MnB5 steel optimized with Nb addition, quenched, and tempered. Microstructure shows distribution and
morphology of precipitates in quenched and tempered steel.12 Bian, J.; Mohrbacher, H. Novel Alloying Design for Press Hardening Steels with
Crash Performance. In International Symposium on New Developments in AHSS, PR-294–026–2013, USA. Available at: www.niobelcon.com/
NiobelCon/publications_files (accessed February 17, 2016).

possible due to addition of elements like C, Mn, Cr, and Mo;
thus insurance of martensitic transformation at a slower
cooling rate such as, 30 K s
1 aids in avoidance of formation
of soft diffusinal decomposition product of austenite. This is
further accentuated by synergistic effect of Mo and B to delay
of austenite to ferrite transformation. All these factors are
responsible for production of 100% martensite quite easily
after quenching. Moreover the role of microalloys in con-
ferring precipitation strengthening is very important. Micro-
structure of 22MnB5 steel optimized with Nb addition clearly
records a high-population density of nano-sized niobium
carbide precipitates distributed uniformly throughout the
matrix (Figure 9).
2.8.2.6 Nanoscale Precipitations Hardenable Steel
Another ultrahigh-strength steel of 1.9 GPa strength with 10%
elongation and 40% reduction in area is developed with
newer strengthening strategy accomplished by judicious heat-
treatment practice. The chemical composition of the steel is
say, Fe–xNi–yAl–1.5Cu–1.5Mo–1.5W–0.07Nb–0.05C–0.01B.13
The strengthening of this steel is envisaged by co-precipitation
of intermetallic like NiAl, and of copper. Both these phases are
capable to provide significant precipitation hardening. When
the Ni/Cu and Al/Cu ratios are kept at lower level (0.6–1.3 and
0.02–0.5, respectively), precipitation of copper is known to lead
the process of co-precipitation. Copper atoms are precipitated
first and then the segregation of nickel and aluminum atoms
takes place at the interfaces between copper and the matrix;
finally the precipitation of NiAl forms at these interfaces upon
continued aging at 550 1C. The steel is normally quenched from
900 1C and then it is tempered/aged at the predetermined
temperature B550 1C.
Experienced some shortcomings in respect of its achievable
mechanical properties, the magnitudes of Ni/Cu and Al/Cu
ratios are now a day increased to 3.3 and 1.3 respectively. This
alteration of chemical composition causes nanoscale precipita-
tion of NiAl at first; these precipitates are distributed uniformly
throughout the matrix. This is then followed by precipitation
of elemental copper at the interface of NiAl and matrix. Thus
188 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

co-precipitates (NiAl þ Cu) are formed at many locations;

however singular precipitates NiAl also remain present at dif-
ferent locations. Both these two types of precipitates confer high
strength to the steel.
It is also noted that carbides of the form Fe3(Mo,W)C and
NbC are formed during heat treatment of these steels. These
fine carbide particles have significant contribution to the
ultimate strength of the material. Therefore it is inferred that
martensite matrix of high-dislocation density is infested with
numerous highly dispersed nanoscale precipitates of NiAl
and co-precipitates of NiAl and copper.14 As stated, the pre-
cipitates of NbC and Fe–Mo–W carbides are also formed in the
microstructures. These microstructural constituents make it
possible to achieve a very high hardness of around 625HV and Figure 10 Variation of hardness with tempering temperature. UG
ultrahigh strength of 41800 MPa in the above steels. Project report, MNIT Jaipur, India after ASM Handbook, Vol. 4; p. 506.

2.8.2.7 Medium-Carbon Low-Alloy Steel

Medium-carbon low-alloy steels are high-strength, high-tough-
ness steels, the properties of which depends upon the chemical
composition and heat treatment. In general these steels contain
average carbon of 0.30 or 0.35 wt.%. AISI 4130 or 4140
contains chromium of (0.8–1.1 wt.%) with molybdenum
(0.15–0.25 wt.%), whereas AISI 4340 and its modified version
are Ni–Cr–Mo steel. In some varieties of this class of steel,
vanadium is added to a small amount (0.05–0.1 wt.%). In
nickel–chromium steel, the hardenability is quite high as nickel
and chromium exhibits synergism in shifting the time tem-
perature transformation (TTT) diagram toward right. In majority
of steel of this class the Ni to Cr ratio is maintained at or above
2:1 with Ni ranging from 1.6 to 2 wt%. Commensurate with the
application of these steels, machining is required before hard-
ening. For a low-hardenable alloy like AISI4130, 4240, 4330,
4340, and their modified versions, normalizing followed by
tempering is required to improve the machinability of steel.
Within this class of steels, there are some steels which are of air
hardening type. These steels are medium-carbon medium-alloy
steel with Cr B5 wt.%, Mo B1–3 wt.%, and V B1.6–1.8 wt.%.
The stated compositions are just nominal and may vary
according to specification given in the standard hand book. For
these steels annealing is preferred before machining. Sometimes
severe mechanical working is required and for those situations
spheroidization annealing is carried out. These medium-carbon
ultrahigh-strength steels contain low to medium alloy contents
and are in general hardened and tempered. However before
hardening, machining may be required. Normalizing and
annealing are the heat-treatment processes preceding the
machining operation. Also post-weld stress relieving may be
required before hardening and tempering. Some of the steels
which have strength higher than 1400 MPa are often exposed to
hydrogen during pickling or electro plating. In those cases dif-
fusion annealing to drive out hydrogen is also carried out.
• Hardening: The medium-carbon low-alloy steels are gen-
erally quenched in oil. The hardening temperature is
around 850–880 1C and the soaking time is decided as
usual by 1 h 25 mm
1 of section thickness. The steel is then
quenched in oil bath kept preferably at a temperature 80 1C
so as to produce 100% martensite. Following the hard-
ening operation, the tempering is done for sufficient period
of time at a temperature ranging from 200 to 650 1C. It
may be noted that the tempering temperature is to be
decided by the degree of reduction in hardness envisaged to
achieve by tempering. A tentative guideline for reaching at a
particular hardness value can be obtained from Figure 10.
• Spheroidizing: Whenever required, spheroidizing anneal-
ing is carried out by heating the steel to 760 1C, holding it
there for 12–14 h, and cooling slowly in the furnace.
• Stress relieving annealing: As stated earlier the stress
relieving operation is carried out at 650–675 1C if the steel
components are welded prior to hardening operation.
Whenever the steel is electroplated, the diffusion annealing
to drive out hydrogen is carried out by heating it to 200 1C
keeping it there for prolonged period of time say 8–10 h
depending upon the thickness of the work piece.
However it is to be kept in mind that these annealing
operations must not be carried out at a temperature higher
than the tempering temperature, if tempering operation
is already accomplished. Going above the tempering tem-
perature will lead to degradation of mechanical properties of
the steel.
Sometimes polymer quenching such as glycol-based
quenchant is used in preference to oil because, it has higher
flexibility in adjusting cooling rates and it does not catch
fire as easily as oil does. The Microstructural changes accom-
panying hardening and tempering of AISI 4140 is shown in
Figures 11(a)–11(c).

• Normalizing: Whenever normalizing operation is required

before machining it is carried out at a temperature
870–900 1C, held there for 1 h 25 mm
1 of section size
and cooled in steel air. The normalized steels are tempered
at 650 1C and then subjected to machining.
• Annealing: Whenever annealing is required it is carried out
at a temperature 830–870 1C followed by furnace cooling
to about 450 1C at a rate of 10–15 1C per h.
2.8.2.8 Si-Modified 4340 Steel
It is designated as 300 M and contains Si 1.4–1.8 wt%. This
steel is normalized by heating to 930 1C, holding there for
30 min per 25 mm of thickness size and then air cooled. If
normalizing is a prerequisite for machining, the steel has to
be tempered at a temperature of 650 1C. This steel is austeni-
tized at about 860 1C, quenched in oil at 80 1C. Following
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 189

Figure 11 Microstructure of 4140 alloy steel (a) In quenched condition showing martensite, (b) quenched from 900 1C and tempered at 420 1C
showing tempered martensitic structure with some acicular product, and (c) tempered at 650 1C showing fully tempered martensitic structure, (all
at 20 m). Courtesy: George F. Vander Voort, Consultant – Struers Inc USA. Vander Voort, G. F. Understanding Heat Treatment Results using
Metallography. Book on stainless steel; ASM: Metals park, OH, 1935.

quenching operation, tempering is carried out at about 320 1C
for 3–4 h. Tempering must be done above 300 1C and
the exact temperature is to be decided by final property
requirement. Double tempering is recommended for best
combination of strength and toughness, because it minimizes
the retained austenite content and produces a mixed mode
of microstructure comprised of relatively coarse and fine
constituent.
2.8.2.9 Ni–Cr Structural Steel
The nickel–chromium steel has wide range of applications.
Low carbon chromium–nickel steel is usually subjected
to surface hardening treatment to produce a hard and wear
resistance surface. These steels are used in heavily loaded gears,
shafts, etc. The TTT-diagram of steel containing 0.12% C, 2%
Cr, and 4% Ni is shown in the Figure 12. After carburizing
the composition of the steel at its surface becomes such
that Ms–Mf temperatures are considerably lowered due to
enhanced stability of austenite caused by alloy addition. When
the carburized components are air cooled to room tempera-
ture, these are partially hardened. Thus subsequent machining
of the parts becomes difficult. So the steels after carburizing
must be heated for tempering at a high temperature, viz.
650 1C. Due to presence of high amount of retained austenite
the carburized case exhibits a somewhere lower hardness
values, RC55.
A single hardening operation is normally carried out for
this steel. The steel is heated to 800–830 1C and held for
suitable time period. Finally the steel is oil quenched and
tempered. Tempering is carried out at such temperature which
can give rise to required mechanical properties.
Medium-carbon chromium–nickel steels are often employed
for improved structural application. The steel contains 0.37% C,
1.4% Cr, and 3.25% Ni. The hardenability of this steel is quite
high and thus this steel is employed for production of heavy
forgings, shafts, high-strength crankshafts, etc., without much
difficulty in through thickness hardening. It is to be noted that
190 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

chromium–nickel steels are highly prone to temper embrittle-
ment, when tempering is carried out at 500 1C followed by slow
cooling. Hence after oil quenching these steels are tempered at
temperature less than 300 1C (say 230–240 1C). This help to
achieve high strength with adequate ductility.
Molybdenum and tungsten further strengthen the steels
without loss of ductility. These elements resist softening
and lessen the quantum of temper embrittlement. Molybde-
num reduces temper embrittlement by delaying the kinetics
of precipitation; however this element does not put any
thermodynamic constraints to the formation of chromium car-
bide which are supposedly responsible for temper embrittlement.
Ultrahigh-strength steels (Table 2) containing 5% Cr are
known as hot-work die steel. In this category, H11 and H13 are
commercially important.
The chemical compositions of these two steels (H11 and
H13) are very much similar; hence their heat treatment and
ultimate mechanical properties do not vary much. These steels
are also known as deep-hardening steel, which imply that they
can be hardened by simple air cooling. Air hardening mini-
mizes the thermal stress and thus the chances of distortion or
cracking are reduced. The modified H11 steel differs from
conventional H11 steels in respect of carbon content. Both H11
and H13 are capable to achieve secondary hardening and so the
best properties of these steels will be achievable by tempering at
temperature higher than 500 1C, that is beyond the secondary
hardening peak. The microstructures of these varieties of steel
after suitable heat treatments comprise of tempered martensites
of desired fineness as shown in Figures 13(a)–13(c). This high-
temperature tempering insures stabilization of microstructures.
For air-hardening steels like H11 modified or H13, the cooling
after forging must be done quite slowly, else there will be
considerable martensite transformation, which may lead to
crack formation due to high-transformational strain.
Therefore after forging the component should be charged
in furnace kept at 800 1C and should be soaked until the
equalization of temperature, throughout the section of com-
ponent is attained. After this the component is cooled very
slowly within the furnace.
The heat-treatment schedule for modified H11 is as follows:

• Normalizing: Normally it is not recommended for these

• Annealing: Annealing is carried out after forging. The
Figure 12 Time temperature transformation diagram for Ni–Cr
structural steel.15 Saunders, N.; Guo, Z.; Li, X.; Miodownik, A. P.;
Schille, J. P. The Calculation of TTT and CCT Diagram of General Steels.
Available from: http://www.sentesoftware.co.uk/media/2540/ttt_cct_steels
(accessed July 4, 2011); Atlas of Isothermal Transformation Diagrams of
BS En Steels, Special Report No. 56; The Iron and Steel Institute:
London, 1956.
steels because these are air hardening steels.
component is heated to 800 1C in a furnace in controlled
atmosphere, and held there for sufficient period to achieve
homogeneity of temperature and microstructure. Following
soaking the component is cooled slowly within furnace up
to a temperature of 450 1C and then rapid cooling to room
temperature may be performed. This will ensure freedom
from carbide network at grain boundaries.

Table 2 Chemical composition of some ultrahigh-strength steels

Type C (wt.%) Mn (wt.%) Si (wt.%) Cr (wt.%) Ni (wt.%) V (wt.%) W (wt.%) Mo (wt.%) Co (wt.%) Al (wt.%)

Chromium hot-work tool steel

H10 T20810 0.40 – – 3.25 – 0.40 – 2.50 – –
H11 T20811 0.35 – – 5.00 – 0.40 – 1.50 – –
H12 T20812 0.35 – – 5.00 – 0.40 1.50 1.50 – –
H13 T20813 0.35 – – 5.00 – 1.00 – 1.50 – –
H14 T20814 0.40 – – 5.00 – – 5.00 – – –
H19 T20819 0.40 – – 4.25 – 2.00 4.25 – 4.25 –

Tungsten hot-work tool steel

H21 T20821 0.35 – – 3.50 – – 9.00 – – –
H22 T20822 0.35 – – 2.00 – – 11.00 – – –
H23 T20823 0.30 – – 12.00 – – 12.00 – – –
H24 T20824 0.45 – – 3.00 – – 15.00 – – –
H25 T20825 0.25 – – 4.00 – – 15.00 – – –
H26 T20826 0.50 – – 4.00 – 1.00 18.00 – – –
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 191

Figure 13 Microstructure of (a) AISI H11 steel austenitized at 1010 1C, air quenched, and double tempered at 510 1C showing fine carbides in
martensitic matrix, (b) microstructure of AISI H13 steel, after spheroidizing annealing, and (c) H13 Steel austenitized at 1025 1C, air quenched and double
tempered at 595 1C showing small amount of very fine undissolved carbides in a martensitic matrix. ASM Hand Book, Vol. 9; p. 1566, 1549, 1567.

• Hardening: For this the components are heated to
760–790 1C at a moderate heating rate of 100 1C per hour,
and held there for half an hour until the temperature
from surface to center equalizes. This will minimize
the thermal stresses in the component. Again, following
the preheating treatments the temperature of component
may be raised to above 1000 1C, held for about 30 min
(however the soaking time is to be suitably adjusted
as per the maximum thickness size and total mass of
a particular charge in the heat-treatment cycle). After
soaking the components are quenched in still air. During
air hardening, the distortion due to heat treatment is
negligibly small.
• Tempering: Tempering of these steels is carried out at such
high temperature where secondary hardening may take
place efficiently. In the majority of cases the tempering
temperature should be about, 550 1C. At this peak sec-
ondary hardening temperature maximization of strength
occurs. However tempering the steel at slightly higher
temperature beyond the secondary hardening peak is con-
sidered to be a better option, because this improves duc-
tility with minimum sacrifice in hardness.
Multiple tempering operations are sometimes carried out
in this type of steel. The first tempering is carried out at 550 1C,
and held there for 1–2 h depending upon their section size.
After this, the component is cooled to room temperature and
again heated to tempering temperature which should be 15 1C
higher than the previous tempering temperature which means
565 1C and is held there for 2 h, following which the com-
ponent is again cooled to room temperature. This may be
carried out for the third time if it is required to improve
ductility to a greater extreme.
• Stress relieving: After rough machining prior to heat-treat-
ment stress relieving anneal is practiced for these steels.
Stress relieving is carried out at a temperature of 650 1C for
preselected time and then cooled very slowly to room
temperature. The stress relieving following rough machin-
ing helps to achieve higher dimensional accuracy in the
heat treated parts.
• Nitriding: This is often required for achieving high-wear
resistance for this variety of steel. In that case the compo-
nents after finish machining and heat treatment are sub-
jected to nitriding operation. Nitriding is carried out at a
192 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
temperature of around 525 1C or at slightly higher tem-
perature, and this treatment may be considered to be sec-
ond tempering of a double tempering operation.
It serves two purposes:
• double tempering to produce more favorable micro-
structure and
• formation of nitrides at the surface ensures very high-wear
resistance.
Exactly identical heat-treatment schedule with similar
requirements will be performed for H13 variety of steel, with
only difference is in their tempering temperature. H13 steel is
tempered at temperature lower than H11 modified due to
existing difference in their composition.
2.8.2.10 Medium-Carbon Chromium–Vanadium Steel
These steels contain above 0.4 wt% carbon with about 1 wt%
chromium and are common structural steels, used in auto-
mobile sector. However the addition of vanadium by 0.2 wt%
is found to increase the resistance to softening upon heating to
elevated temperature. This steel is very much suitable for crank
shaft, spindle, shaft, etc. Increasing the carbon content to
0.50 wt%, makes the steel become suitable for applications as
heavy duty springs.
Heat treatment of medium-carbon chromium–vanadium
steel
• A normalizing treatment is carried out by heating the steel
to 900 1C, held for suitable time period and then it is
cooled in still air.
• Normalizing is followed by hardening process. Hardening
is carried by heating at moderate heating rate till 700 1C,
holding there for 15 min to relieve thermal stress and then
heating at a faster rate, 100–150 1C h
1, to a temperature of
880–890 1C. The steel is held there for 1 h for each 25 mm
of maximum section thickness. For heavy duty spring steel
with the high carbon content, (B0.5 wt%); a slightly lower
austenitizing temperature is recommended; the tempera-
ture of austenitization may be kept at 850–860 1C. The
austenitized steel is quenched in oil.
• Following oil quenching, the structural steel for use as crank
shaft (0.4 wt%C) is tempered at high temperature just
beyond the secondary hardening peak. The tempering tem-
perature for this steel is around 650 1C whereas tempering
temperature for heavy duty springs is kept somewhat lower,
B450 1C. The idea of high-temperature tempering for
structural steel stems from the requirement of high fracture
toughness of the steel at relatively high-strength level. Hence
attempt is made to achieve a strength of 900 MPa at 50%
reduction in area. For spring steels however the strength
Table 3 Composition of heavy duty spring steel
C (wt%) Mn (wt%) P (wt%) S (wt%) Si (wt%) Al (wt%)
0.50–0.55 0.760 0.010 0.001 0.257 0.034
0.50–0.55 0.75 0.03 0.03 0.25 0.04
requirement is rather high and a low-tempering temperature
enables to achieve strength of 1300 MPa.
2.8.2.11 Chromium–Molybdenum Steel: Steel for High-
Temperature Boiler Application
Molybdenum bearing steels are generally employed for heat
resistance application. Steels containing lower carbon of
0.15 wt% with 0.5 wt% Mo can retain its strength quite satis-
factorily till 550 1C. Another variety of the steel containing
0.15 wt% carbon, 0.5 wt%Mo with 1 wt% Cr has excellent
weld ability. Its weldability is good because of low carbon
content. Since Molybdenum is present in substantial amount,
the steel possesses excellent high-temperature properties.
Moreover presence of chromium imparts good corrosion
resistance. This steel is a good choice for boiler drum, boiler
tubes, and super heater pipes. In the present day’s boilers,
high-temperature steam is in use. The super heater materials of
today’s boiler plants must have very good high-temperature
properties; resistance to deterioration of mechanical properties
due to rise in temperature must be quite high in the materials
to be used in modern super heater pipes.
Another medium-carbon steel of composition 0.30 wt%
carbon, 0.25–0.3 wt% Mo, and 1 wt%Cr is employed for
manufacturing of critical components of turbine such as rotor,
shaft, etc. Fastening parts of high-temperature boiler are pre-
ferentially made from the same type of steel but with a high
chromium content, i.e., 1.6–1.8 wt%. The steels belonging to
this group are used in hardened and tempered condition.
Heat-treatment schedules of Cr–Mo steel:
• Normalizing from a temperature of 900–925 1C.
• Holding at the austenitizing temperature, 840–880 1C for
suitable time, followed by oil quenching with oil tem-
perature at 50–60 1C.
• Tempering is carried out at the preselected temperature; the
selection of tempering temperature depends upon the final
mechanical strength to achieve.
2.8.3 Spring Steel
To ensure good performance as a spring material, the important
factors are the elastic limit, or the proportional limit in tension
and that under torsion which must be quite high. If loading is
done upto higher stress values, it would result in permanent set
and in such case the material will not return to its original state.
Impact loading, rapid cycling, extreme temperature, i.e.,
where creep is important, adversely affect the spring properties
of the steel. The corrosion or stress corrosion is the other issue
creating constraints to the performance of spring steel. A
typical composition of spring steel is provided in the Table 3.
Cr (wt%) Ni (wt%) V (wt%) Mo (wt%) N2 (wt%)
0.8–1.1 0.016 0.15 0.003 0.005
0.60–0.70
(o0.02) (o0.004) (o0.005)
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
The factors influencing allowable working stress of spring
steels are:
• range of working stress,
• frequency of deflection or oscillations that the spring is to
undergo, and
• temperature of operation.
If operating temperature of a spring is increased, its load
bearing capacity is decreased. This is reflected by the relaxation
or load loss as shown in Figure 14.
Different types of spring steels used for various applications
are plain carbon manganese steels, silicon–manganese steels,
and different types of alloy steels including stainless steels. The
steels which are capable to release the stored energy respon-
sively are normally used for spring application. It is empha-
sized that limited use of spring under load does not give up
their original dimension; thus for these steels, high-elastic
modulus, high-yield strength, and precipitation hardening
are preferred. Further, spring steels must have high-fatigue
strength as they also experience fluctuating stresses and
sometimes overloading. Its plasticity must be sufficiently high
so as to enable the manufacturer to form springs of appro-
priate shape. High-carbon steels with suitable alloying ele-
ments are required to be judiciously heat treated in order to
achieve above properties.
As stated earlier, the modulus of spring steels should not be
less than 21  104 MPa, with a modulus of rigidity higher than
8  104 MPa. The failure of spring steels is commonly a fatigue
failure initiated by stress raisers. Therefore the spring steels
must be made up of very hard and strong materials.
In order to get these properties, most spring steels except
stainless steel variety, are used in hardened and tempered
condition. Schematic heat-treatment schedule for particular
spring steel is shown in Figure 15(a).
In the hardened condition the spring steels must achieve
100% martensite at the center of the section. It is important to
avoid retained austenite in hardened condition, which creates
soft spots and affects the properties of spring. Therefore judi-
cious selection of alloying element is made to design spring
Figure 14 Load loss diagram. www.centuryspring.com.
193
steels, so that Ms temperature does not go below room
temperature.
However hardenability of spring steels must be sufficiently
high to produce 100% martensite at the center. This allows
high-carbon steel with suitable alloying elements to compose
a good spring material.
The heat treatment of spring steel should be carried out
very carefully, because the spring characteristic is inherently
dependent on the heat treatment which ensures achieving the
desired microstructure.15–17 Microstructures of the above
spring steel are seen to be tempered martensites of varying
fineness when oil quenched and tempered at different tem-
peratures (Figure 15(b)).
The successful heat treatment of spring steel must envisage:
• Complete absence of non-martensitic product of transfor-
mation of austenite in its hardened state; this is possible only
if a compositionally homogeneous austenite is produced in
the heating stage and sufficiently rapid cooling, commensu-
rate with hardenability of the spring steels is employed.
If there is any quench delay because of material handling
difficulties, the austenite phase in steel may undergo slow air
cooling and may reach such a temperature from where
it becomes difficult for the inner section of the material
to avoid softer components to form. Thus in industrial
situation, delay in quenching must be prohibited. The quality
achieved by stipulated heat-treatment cycle is equally
important and so the hardness testing of hardened material
must be checked to ensure if 100% martensite is formed up
to center of stock.
Because the spring steels are generally of high carbon
content, extremely high-temperature austenitization is also
discouraged. Moreover furnace atmosphere for high auste-
nitization temperature must not be too much oxidizing so as
to effect decarburization beyond the level of acceptance.
Owing to the fact that decarburization takes place at high
temperature, there is a chance that fatigue strength of mate-
rial may be adversely affected. Normally the spring steel
requires appropriate shaping by way of hot working
at elevated temperature of around 925 1C, preferably in
controlled atmosphere. However the exact temperature
of working depends upon the chemical composition of
steel. Any difficulty during shaping can be taken care by
intermediate annealing for softening the material. Sometimes
cold working followed by subcritical annealing around
temperature of 650 1C, in neutral atmosphere is performed.
Permitted by the cold deformability, this kind of recrystalli-
zation annealing for softening the material is a better choice
because it prohibits decarburization. Silicon present in the
steel increases the activity of carbon in iron and therefore a
silicon alloy steels is very prone to surface decarburization. In
order to take care of this difficulty the silicon bearing steels
are annealed for shortest possible time at the lowest possible
temperature.
It is advisable to normalize the spring steel, which are
generally exposed to high-working stress during shaping. In
fact the steels which are hot worked by forging are always
required to be normalized prior to final heat treatment.
This is because of sudden energy input in such type of
metal forming operation which may lead to adiabatic heating
194 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Figure 15 (a) Heat-treatment cycle and (b) The microstructure of spring steel oil quenched and tempered for 2 h at (i) 450 1C, (ii) 500 1C, and
(iii) 550 1C.17 Htun, M. S.; Kyaw, S. T.; Lwin, K. T. Effect of Heat Treatment on Microstructures and Properties of Spring Steel. J. Min. Met. Mats.
2008, 18 (2), 191–197.
thereby leading to the formation of unacceptable structure.
Normalizing leads to structural refinement and can be a good
starting material for the subsequent heat-treatment opera-
tion. In general the steel is heated to a temperature of 850–
880 1C, held for certain period of time following the rule
of 1 h 25 mm
1 section thickness and then cooled in still air.
The hardening operation for the spring steel is extremely
critical. Springs are required to be heated quite uniformly
throughout the section while attaining the stipulated hard-
ening temperature. It is very important that during heating of
steel, there is no change in dimension or shape of the charged
material. It is therefore advisable to load the spring within
the furnace in horizontal position. Vertically loaded springs
for heating may be deformed due to its own weight; when it
becomes quite hot during austenitizing the flow stress
reduces and the spring deforms. To avoid distortion of long
spring, the furnace wall must be plain and smooth without
creating any imbalance in load throughout the length of the
spring. For a long spring, change in radial dimension is also a
concern and it is advisable to insert a mandrel inside the
spring. As discussed earlier, holding time depends upon the
maximum cross section and also on the total charge placed
in a furnace. Springs of smaller dimension are heated to the
lower limit of the temperature range for hardening, whereas
the upper limit of hardening temperature is normally
employed for the springs of larger dimension. It may be
recalled that too high a hardening temperature or a pro-
longed holding time at the hardening temperature gives rise
to grain coarsening and excessive decarburization, whereas
too low hardening temperature is not desirable as it adversely
affect proper hardening.
After holding for suitable period of time at the hardening
temperature, the spring is taken off from furnace and then
quenched in oil or water depending upon their composition
and the final properties required. The temperature of water
should be maintained to 30–40 1C so that a slower cooling
rate within Ms–Mf can be achieved. The quenching bath must
be agitated for improving efficiency of quenching.
For high-carbon high-alloy steels, oil quenching is preferred
over water quenching because water quenching leads to the
formation of quenching cracks. However the quenching
oil should be heated to a temperature of 80 1C, at which
it will have adequate fluidity for effective quenching within
the Ms–Mf region. Similar to water quenching, the oil
quenching bath is also to be subjected to agitation when heat
treatable items are put to the quenching medium.
Sometimes very high-hardenable steels are used to impart
suitable properties by suitable heat treatment of steels. In
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Figure 16 Reduction in hardness due to tempering of spring steel.
this case the work pieces are tempered immediately after
quenching as it helps to avoid the quench cracks.
Tempering temperature is decided by the final properties
desired in the material. The reduction in hardness due to
tempering of a spring steel of different composition at dif-
ferent temperatures is shown in Figure 16. It is experienced in
general that beyond a tempering temperature, degree of
reduction in hardness value decrease due to increase in
temperature. It is apparent from the figure that the reduction
in hardness during tempering is a function of tempering
temperature for a particular tempering time. It is important to
note that the magnitude of reduction in hardness during
tempering is a deciding factor of finally achievable toughness
properties in the materials. To acquire a good spring char-
acteristics the hardness reduction by tempering must not be
less than RC15. For successful heat treatment of a particular
spring steel of similar specification, such type of master curves
are to be generated by experimental trials. Sometimes some
spring steels are also subjected to patenting operation. Aus-
tenitization is carried out at sufficiently high temperature
above Ac3; it is then cooled in molten salt bath kept at fixed
temperature near the nose of continuous cooling transfor-
mation (CCT) diagram so that a fine pearlitic microstructure
or a combination of pearlitic and upper bainitic structure can
be produced.
Specific heat-treatment cycles of some common spring steels
are given below:
• AISI 1065: (C-0.6–0.7 wt%; Si-0.35 wt% max; Mn-
0.60–0.90 wt%; S,P-0.035 wt% max)
o It is mainly used for light flat spring, for example,
seat cushions spring for vehicles.
o Heat-treatment cycle comprises, of soft annealing at
660 1C, hardening by oil quenching from 825 1C
followed by tempering at around 500 1C.
o Tempered hardness to be achieved is RC45.
• AISI 1074: (C- 0.7–0.8 wt%; Mn-0.5–0.8 wt%; S,
P-0.03 wt% max.)
o These are used for flat and coiled spring for auto-
mobile and vehicles.
o Soft annealed at 650 1C oil quenching from 800 1C
and tempering at 625 1C.
195
• AISI 1084: (C-0.8–0.9 wt%; Si-0.35 wt%; Mn-0.6–
0.9 wt%; S,P-0.04 wt% max.)
o These are mainly used for flat and coiled spring for
automobiles and railways.
o Heat-treatment cycle comprises, soft annealing at
650 1C, oil quenching from 800 1C, and tempering
at 625 1C.
• AC22–76: (C-0.5–0.6 wt%; Si-1.8–2.2 wt%; Mn-0.7–
0.95 wt%; S,P-0.035 wt% max.)
o Silico–manganese steel: Normalizing followed by
hardening from 850 1C and then oil quenching with
oil at 80 1C, and then tempering at 600–625 1C.
• AISI 1095: (C-0.92–1 wt%; Mn-0.05 wt%)
o Annealing at 810 1C; Normalizing at 880 1C;
Hardening at 800–820 1C.
o Oil quenching and tempering to RC50.
2.8.4 Silicon Steel
The steel used as the core material of electrical transformers is
generally a soft magnetic material viz. grain-oriented silicon
steel.17–18 After due processing, this material exhibits a pro-
nounced Goss texture, i.e., a {110} 〈001〉 texture, which is
indicative of preferred orientation of grains. High-temperature
annealing during the processing of this steel leads to abnormal
growth of grains with Goss orientation. Till date universally
accepted reasoning is yet to be put forward in respect of the
origin of preferred growth of the above Goss grains. It is
conjectured that the Goss orientation is inherited since early
stages of the production of this material and at later stages of
processing it grows at the expense of others, due probably to
the strain energy factor.
It is known that the Goss orientation owes its origin to
shear deformation during hot rolling. The deformation con-
fined to the surface is responsible for evolution of Goss
texture.
The general processing of transformer steels include the
production of ultraclean steel with the available technology; the
strip is then subjected to first cold rolling to reach to an inter-
mediate thickness. Decarburization re-crystallization annealing
is done with cold-rolled strip in continuous annealing furnace.
Second cold rolling is done to achieve the final thickness. Then
a heat-resistant coating is applied (MgO) and following this,
high-temperature batch annealing is accomplished. During this
annealing strong Goss texture develops. The microstructure of
the annealed steel is shown in Figure 17.
Soft magnetic material possesses minimum coercive force
and maximum magnetic permeability. For this, a homogenous
single phase microstructure is required. The material must not
contain any residual stress which adversely affects the perfor-
mance of the material. In electrical industries low-carbon
silicon steels are widely used as soft magnetic material. Silicon
goes in solution in iron and expectedly increases the electrical
resistivity. The electrical resistivity is due to the incoherent
scattering of electrons at the small-scale irregularities within
the crystal. Substitutional Si-atoms are the irregularities of
atomic scale of magnitude and hence increase the resistivity. At
the same time it reduces the eddy current losses and improves
magnetic permeability. The hysteresis loss is minimized in
196 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Figure 17 Microstructure of grain-oriented silicon steel after
annealing.19 Dorner, D.; Zaefferer, S.; Lahn, L.; Raabe, D. Magn, J.
Magn. Mater. 2006, 304 (2), 183–186.
steel containing 4% Si at a carbon contain below 0.02%. This
kind of electrical-sheet steel requires special heat treatment.
Batch annealing is carried out in a reducing atmosphere at a
very high temperature like 1200 1C. This high-temperature
annealing is carried out in inert environment or in vacuum;
such a high-temperature annealing for a long period of time,
i.e., 15–30 h aims at recrystallization followed by grain
coarsening and also deliberate decarburization to burn out
carbon at high temperature. The development of a textured
material gives a high initial permeability and ensures easy
magnetization.
For application as permanent magnet hyper eutectoid
chromium steel containing 0.9–1% of carbon with 1.2–1.5 wt%
of chromium, is commonly used. Chromium content may be
varied up to 3.5 wt% in special cases. Maximum value of
coercivity is obtained after hardening of steel. Quenching
stresses are relieved by tempering the steel after hardening.
The general heat-treatment process for this kind of steel for use
as a permanent magnet consists of heating the material to
around 850 1C, holding there for 1 h per each 25 mm of
maximum section thickness and then quenching in oil or in
suitable polymer quenching medium. After hardening, the
steel is tempered at a low temperature of 100–120 1C for a
prolonged period, even up to 20–25 h; this first stage of
tempering stabilizes the microstructure and hence the mag-
netic properties. Magnetic properties can be improved by
alloying the above steel with tungsten by around 5%. It is to
be remembered that the steels meant for application as per-
manent magnet must not be held above Curie temperature
for the sake of softening of the steel or as a strategy for
preheating before forging, as this will exert a permanent
detrimental effect to the microstructure and hence the prop-
erties. It should be understood that the ferromagnetic iron
requires the favorable alignment of magnetic domains con-
taining parallel spins. This is also possible in a iron–carbon
alloy where a single phase exists. Magnetic spoiling due to
annealing at 800 1C is ascribed to the coarsening of carbide
particles which will not dissolve properly during austeniti-
zation. Thus the quenched microstructure is not a single
phase and is comprised of carbon depleted martensite and
undissolved carbides. These carbides restrict the movement
of the domain boundaries required for getting the correct
alignments in favorable directions in respect of the externally
applied magnetic field.
If the same steel is normalized at a very high temperature
like 1200 1C, the carbides go into solution and a single phase
microstructure is obtained with the resultant removal of
magnetic spoiling. In some cases due to the advantage of
cobalt to improve magnetic property (Co is a ferromagnetic
material), the steel containing 8–10 wt%Cr and 13–15 wt%
Co are used as permanent magnetic material. However Cobalt
steels are very prone to magnetic spoiling mainly because
the cobalt steels are extremely hard and require a high tem-
perature of 800 1C to get softened. Thus magnetic spoiling
is an inevitable consequence of manufacturing of cobalt
bearing steel.
The recommended heat treatments for these steels are
• Heating the steel to 1200–1230 1C for austenitization
accompanied by complete dissolution of carbides; the steel
is held for suitable time at these hardening temperatures.
• Quenching it in air to reduce the thermal stress yet produ-
cing a completing single phase martensitic microstructure.
• Tempering the steel at 700–750 1C for 1 h per each 25 mm
of section size followed by air cooling.
• Raising the temperature of the steel to around 1050 1C and
holding there for a selected period time; the steel in aus-
tenitic condition is quenched in oil and finally aged at low
temperature, like 100 1C.
Austenitizing for the first hardening leads to complete
dissolution of the preexisting carbide particles. Tempering the
hardened steel at 750 1C leads to the formation of uniformly
distributed fine carbide particle in a matrix of low-carbon
martensite. Dissolution of these fine carbide particles in aus-
tenite becomes very easy and therefore the second hardening
from a low temperature gives rise to the required homo-
genization effect without the risk of other microstructural
damages affecting the magnetic properties.
• The alloy containing 14Ni8Al20Co3Cu is a very good
magnetic material. The alloy is extremely hard and so
produced by casting. The heat treatment of these alloys is
quite complex and is as follows.
o Heating to 1300 1C at a very slow rate of the order of
20–30 1C per hour under a magnetic field of intensity
3000 Oe (oersteds).
o After this treatment material achieves a very good
magnetic property.
2.8.5 Bearing Steel
A bearing is used as a support and allows relative movement to
take place between two bodies. In a diesel engine, the principal
bearings are those which allow rotation of the crankshaft
about its own longitudinal axis in the main engine and those
between the connecting rod and crankshaft.
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 197

The surface undergoing relative movement, the lubricant to 160–180 1C for 2 h. The microstructure of ball-bearing steel of
be used and the environment are the deciding factors of type 52 100 is shown in Figure 18.
property requirements in bearing steel. The steel must have

• resistance to fatigue and crack growth, 2.8.6 Hadfield Steel

• high hardness and strength,
• resistance to hydrogen cracking, Hadfield manganese steel is essentially high-carbon high-man-
• high corrosion resistance, and ganese steel where carbon content is around 1.1–1.4% with
• high toughness. 11–14% manganese. The alloy is principally made for high-
wear resistance application and its high work hardening ability
Types of bearing:
makes it applicable for various applications including armors.
There can be several types of bearings for commercial
Microstructurally Hadfield manganese steel must be fully
application depending upon the nature of contact. These are:
austenitic without the presence of any carbide in the micro-
• solid contact bearing or journal bearing: structure. The compositions of some commercial Hadfield
a) hydro dynamically lubricated bearing manganese steels are given in Table 5.
b) boundary lubricated bearing. Fully austenitic steel is non-magnetic. As stated, the micro-
• rolling contact bearing: structure of Hadfield steel is fully austenitic at all the tempera-
a) ball bearing tures; thus there is no scope of structural refinement of these
b) roller bearing. steels through conventional heat treatment. The commercial
Hadfield manganese steels are required to have the commonly
Ball-bearing steels are a special class of steel. The nom- specified grain size of ASTM-4 or finer. Therefore proper melting
inal compositions of this variety of steels are given in the
techniques are employed to achieve the required grain size.
Table 4. It is very common that the solidified Hadfield manganese
In practice the materials of bearing, like the balls, rings, steel contains some carbide particles at the grain boundaries.
and the rollers are subjected to abrasive wear and corrosion.
The precipitated carbides are shown in the Figure 19(a). Slower
It is known that chromium in high-carbon steel is introduced to is the solidification rate, higher will be the amounts of carbides
impart aforesaid of the properties. High strength of the material present in the microstructure. These carbides are of the type
is normally obtained by hardening and tempering.20–22 This (FeMn)3C.
ensures a high fatigue limit, good contact fatigue resistance at
high-abrasion resistance. Normally the starting microstructure
of this steel is fine pearlite with dispersed cementite particles.
The procedure to be adopted for hardening is dependent upon
the sizes of the bearing component. The small balls are quen-
ched in oil whereas water quenching may be involved for large
sized balls. It is to be recalled that volume expansion due
to martensite transformation in a ball will be mostly isotropic
and there will be less propensity for cracking even when it
is quenched in water. However a polymer quenching with
suitable concentration of polymer may be a more reliable
quenching medium. The hardened balls are subjected to tem-
pering at relative low temperatures that is around 150–160 1C
so that fine low-carbon martensite with dispersed carbide par-
ticle constitute the microstructure. However better results can be
obtained if the thermal stresses accompanying quenching can
be taken care by employing martempering process. The mate-
rials austenitized at 850 1C may be quenched in a salt bath
maintained at a temperature of 180–190 1C. Formation of
matrensite and its first stage of tempering take place simulta-
neously, with the likelihood of the presence of some retained
austenite. The retained austenite present in the oil quenched Figure 18 Microstructure of 52 100 type ball-bearing steel showing
samples may be reduced by subzero treatment at
50 1C tempered martensite and undissolved carbide. G.F. Vander Voort The
for about an hour. This is then followed by tempering at Microstructure of Ferrous Alloys.

Table 4 Composition of ball-bearing steel

Sl. no. Carbon Chromium Silicon Manganese Sulfur and Phosphorus

1 1.05–1.15 0.4–0.7 0.15–0.35 0.25–0.45 0.025 max

2 1–1.1 0.9–1.2 – – –
3 0.95–1.05 1.3–1.65 – – –
198 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

Table 5 Chemical compositions of different grades of austenitic manganese steels

Grade Carbon Manganese Chromium Molybdenum Nickel Silicon Phosphorous

(wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%) (wt%)

max max

A 1.05–1.35 11.0 min – – – 1.00 0.07

B-1 0.90–1.05 11.5–14.5 – – – 1.00 0.07
B-2 1.05–1.20 11.5–14.5 – – – 1.00 0.07
B-3 1.12–1.28 11.5–14.5 – – – 1.00 0.07
B-4 1.20–1.35 11.5–14.5 – – – 1.00 0.07
C 1.05–1.35 11.5–14.5 1.5–2.5 – – 1.00 0.07
D 0.70–1.30 11.5–14.5 – – 3.0–4.0 1.00 0.07
E-1 0.70–1.30 11.5–14.5 – 0.90–1.20 – 1.00 0.07
E-2 1.05–1.45 11.5–14.5 – 1.80–2.10 – 1.00 0.07
F 1.05–1.35 6.0–8.0 – 0.90–1.20 – 1.00 0.07

Source: ASM Hand Book, Vol. 1, p. 1274.

Figure 19 Microstructure of Hadfield steel showing (a) precipitated carbides, (b) undissolved carbide, and (c) clean grain boundaries after heat
treatment.23 (a) and (b) ASM Hand Book, Vol. 9; p. 1675, 1678; (c) Hosseini, S.; Limooei, M. B. Optimization of Heat Treatment to Obtain Desired
Mechanical Properties of High Carbon Hadfield Steel. World Appl. Sci. J. 2011, 15 (10), 1421–1424.

The heat treatment of Hadfield manganese steel aims at
dissolving the precipitated carbides at high temperature and
then cooling it very fast to achieve carbide free grains of aus-
tenite which is considered to be the ideal microstructure for its
commercial application.23–26 The most commonly stated heat
treatment is to heat the steel at a high temperature like 1000 1C,
holding it there for preselected time and then quenching it in
water. Importantly the complete dissolution of the carbide
depends upon judicious selection of heating temperature and
the concerned soaking time. The cooling rate is of extreme
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 199

importance as a slower cooling rate makes the steel prone to • After almost complete dissolution of carbides, the steel is
precipitate carbide. So the major points to consider for suc- heated as fast as possible up to a temperature of 1100–
cessful heat treatment of Hadfield manganese steels are: 1150 1C so that
a) there is insurance of complete carbide dissolution
• Elimination of any undissolved carbide by solutionizing at without anything being left to be dissolved,
a high temperature. b) production of compositionally homogenous austenite
• Avoidance of precipitated carbide in the final microstructure. is possible,
c) grain coarsening by unnecessary high-temperature
In industrial situation the control of austenitization tem-
exposure for a long time may be avoided, and
perature and holding time is not so easy in the midst of
d) ample provision may be made for inevitable delay in
operational constraints due to inherent difficulty in mechan-
quenching in an industrial situation irrespective of
ical handling of the heated objects of heavy weight. From the
efficacy of material handling system.
phase diagram of the steel it may be observed that the for-
mation of carbides is highly probable if the steel is held for • The steel is held at this high temperature for a very short
period of time, say for 15–20 min due to above stated
sufficient time at temperature below 700 1C. It is for this
reasons. The steel components are then quenched very fast
reason the heating rate at the initial stage is very important.
in a circulating bath of water with 4–5% of sodium
Also this high-alloy steel is very prone to decarburization
chloride (NaCl) in it.
and demanganization on prolonged holding at high tem-
perature which may lead to compositional degradation and A typical microstructure without any carbide is shown in
formation of a microstructure that does not secure the desired the Figure 19(c).
property of the steel, thereby rendering the component unu-
sable. Thus the suggested strategy of heat treatment may be as
follows. 2.8.7 Stainless Steel
• Heating the component at a very fast rate till a temperature
of 750–800 1C is attained by the objects; below this tem- Stainless steels are categorized on the basis of various micro-
perature, the probability for formation of (FeMn)3C is very structures. Accordingly different classes of stainless steels are
high. Depending upon the capacity of the furnace, a heat- termed as martensitic, austenitic, ferritic, duplex (ferrite with
ing rate of 150–200 1C h
1 is also recommendable. austenite), and precipitation hardening stainless steel. Each
• Because of fast heating there will be thermal shock due to variety has a range of composition and within this range a
temperature difference between surface and center of stock. number of steels each with specific designation and different
However austenite is face-centered cubic (FCC) in structure composition from others are available. For example, steels of
and is a ductile phase; therefore the chance of cracking due types 403, 410, 416, 420, 440A, etc., belong to the general
to thermal shock is less. Nevertheless the chance of dis- class of martensitic stainless steel. Stainless steels are employed
tortion due to differential volume change at different in application where corrosion resistance and heat resistance
position of the section cannot be underrated. Therefore are important. All stainless steels ought to contain chromium
the component is held at 750–800 1C for about 30 min. as its principal alloying element; the stainlessness is due to the
The exact time of holding must be determined through formation of a thin impervious layer of Cr2O3 on the surface
experience of the hardware system and charge quantity of a of the stainless steel component. The passivity of this layer in
specified batch under heat treatment in a particular shop. presence of most of the aggressive environments makes it a
• The material is then heated to a high temperature like versatile corrosion and weather resistant material.
1050–1075 1C at a moderate heating rate say 75 1C h
1.
A slower heating rate is preferred to avoid thermal gradient
2.8.7.1 Martensitic Stainless Steel
which may lead to distortion of the material which being
austenitic is highly plastic at elevated temperature. On the Martensitic variety of stainless steel contains 12–18 wt% of
contrary a slower heating rate implies a higher residence chromium. The composition of some commercially important
time at a high temperature; this makes the steel liable to steels falling under this class is given in Table 6.
decarburization unless the furnace atmosphere is highly Being martensitic, these steels are magnetic and are amen-
controlled. Again the slower heating rate takes a longer able to cold working at low-carbon concentration; the heat
time to reach the austenitizing temperature which affects
productivity. Therefore proper measures are to be taken
while selecting the heating rate. Table 6 Chemical composition of martensitic stainless steels
(in wt %)
• The steel is soaked at 1050 1C for 1 h per 25 mm of section
size for complete dissolution of carbides. The dissolution Type C Cr Ni Si Mn P S Other
of carbides should be completed at a reasonably low
temperature but not with prolonged holding time; the idea 403 0.15 11.5–13 – 0.5 1 0.04 0.03 –
is to dissolve the carbides rapidly without much chemical 410 0.15 11.5–13.5 – 1 1 0.04 0.03 –
degradation at the solutionizing temperature. If solutio- 416 0.15 12–14 – 1 1.25 0.06 0.03 0.6Mo
420 0.15 12–14 – 1 1 0.04 0.03 –
nizing temperature is too much increased to reduce the
440A 0.60–0.75 16–18 – 1 1 0.04 0.03 0.75Mo
socking time, rapid grain coarsening may take place when
there is no restrictive agent at the grain boundaries. Source: ASM Metal Hand Book, Vol. 1.
200 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
treatment of martensitic stainless steel envisages the produc-
tion of martensite from austenitic phase field.27–29 and
therefore the heat-treatment process is similar to those prac-
ticed for plain-carbon or low-alloy steels where strength of the
steels are required to be obtained from the hardness of mar-
tensite that forms due to rapid cooling of high-hardenability
austenite.
It is to be noted that stainless steels are high-alloy steels
and due to characteristic effect of alloying elements the hard-
enability of this class of steel is very high; this entails the
possibility of formation of martensite even under the ordinary
air cooling. However chromium being a strong ferrite stabilizer
raises the upper critical temperature by constricting the aus-
tenite phase field. The constriction of austenitic loop in the
equilibrium diagram of high-chromium steels requires a
judicious selection of temperature to produce austenite at a
particular carbon level. The cross section of Fe–C–Cr phase
diagram at 12% Cr is shown in the diagram in Figure 20. From
this diagram it is possible to determine the austenitizing
temperature for a martensitic stainless steel of 12% Cr.
Thus martensitic stainless steels are normally heated to a
temperature above 1020 1C for austenitizing. However
the time at holding temperature must be kept to minimum
because at such high austenitizing temperature, there is a great
risk of fast grain coarsening just after the dissolution of car-
bides is completed; at the same time decarburization at the
surface of the steel component may take place in martensitic
stainless steels which contain appreciable amount of carbon.
Following austenitization, the steel is quenched in oil or air.
Air quenching, wherever possible, is encouraged due to the
potential it bears to minimize thermal stresses. Tempering of
the steel follows hardening operation. Tempering of the
quenched martensitic stainless steel is carried out at about
580–600 1C so as to take the advantage of secondary hard-
ening. The microstructure of the martensitic stainless steel
showing tempered martensite is furnished in Figure 21.
If the carbon content of the martensitic stainless steel is
high, tempering must not be carried out too long near 580 1C
because it will lead to the precipitation of chromium carbides;
consequential formation of chromium depleted matrix will
Figure 20 Phase diagram of iron–carbon–chromium alloy for 12 wt%
chromium. Thum, E. E. Book on Stainless Steels, 2nd ed.; ASM:
Metals Park, OH, 1935.
lead to deterioration of corrosion resistance. In the event the
carbon content of the martensitic stainless steel is low, the
severity of lowering of corrosion resistance property is not so
significant as to warrant any special action.
Martensitic stainless steel of high-chromium content with
appreciable amount of carbon content must not be tempered
within the range of 390–500 1C because there will be sig-
nificant lowering of impact strength of material. This temper
embrittlement is known as 400 1C embrittlement and must be
avoided while heat treating martensitic stainless steel.
2.8.7.2 Ferritic Stainless Steel
Ferritic stainless steel contains higher chromium content than
the martensitic stainless steel. Normally the chromium content
of the ferritic stainless steel ranges from 14 to 27 wt%. From
the Fe–C–Cr diagram sectioned at 18% chromium, shown in
Figure 22, it appears that for a low-carbon level, the austenite is
not possible to form until a very high temperature, viz 1200 1C
is attained for a carbon content of 0.06%. This implies that the
steel of this composition is ferritic from room temperature till
1200 1C and is not amenable to hardening. Ferritic stainless
steel may be hardened by only cold working. Microstructure
being ferritic, ferritic stainless steel can be readily cold worked
and deep drawn. This is why this type of stainless steel is used
in food industries and for architectural trims, etc. Annealed
steels are very soft and ductile and it possesses a very good
formability. In the annealed condition ferritic stainless steels
are much stronger then the annealed low-carbon steels and its
corrosion resistance is much higher than the martensitic
stainless steel. The composition of some ferritic stainless steels
is given in Table 7.
Other than annealing, there is no other meaningful heat-
treatment practice which may help to improve the properties
of ferritic stainless steel. The microstructure of a fully ferritic
stainless steel is shown in Figure 23.
However this steel is highly prone to embrittlement if held
at temperature within 400–500 1C. This embrittlement leads
to sharp deterioration of impact properties and therefore the
annealing operation must be carried out at a temperature from
above 500 1C till the temperature at which austenite is likely to
form. After holding for adequate period of time which is
decided by whether there is any carbide phase present in its
microstructure and if the carbides can easily go in solution to
produce a single phase homogenous ferrite. The steel is then
slowly cooled till 500 1C; in any case, long time holding
within 400–500 1C is not allowed for the sake of avoiding
400 1C embrittlement. It is advisable to cool the material
slowly within the furnace till 500 1C after which a faster
cooling must be accomplished to avoid 400 1C embrittlement.
The exact cause of 400 1C embrittlement is not known but
the recorded observation of enhanced embrittlement with
increasing chromium content tends to hint upon that 400 1C
embrittlement is related to the formation of harmful carbides
while holding the steel at the above temperature region.
2.8.7.3 Austenitic Stainless Steel
In consideration of the means to take care of susceptibility
of intergranular corrosion, the austenitic stainless steels are
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 201

Figure 21 Microstructure of AISI 403 martensitic stainless steel (a) in annealed condition, (b) in quenched and tempered condition showing
tempered martensite, and the (c) microstructure of AISI 410, martensitic stainless steel oil quenched from 1040 1C followed by tempering at
650 1C showing tempered martensite. Courtesy: George F. Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Buehler Ltd. Vander Voort, G. F. The
Microstructure of Stainless Steels.

divided into several groups. The conventional austenitic steel

Figure 22 Phase diagram of iron–carbon–chromium alloy with 18 wt%
chromium. Thum, E. E. Book on Stainless Steel, 2nd ed.; ASM: Metals
Park, OH, 1935.
contains around 0.15% carbon which in stabilized group is
managed by addition of carbide formers. The low carbon
variety directly avoids the formation of carbide which is
known to be the main cause of intergranular corrosion. There
are high-nitrogen steels where nitrogen is employed as auste-
nite stabilizer; however nitrogen also imparts a better surface
property. Some of the austenitic stainless steels are alloyed
with other alloying elements to incorporate special properties.
The general composition of a few commercially important
austenitic stainless steels encompassing all the varieties as
stated above is furnished in Table 8.
The coefficient of thermal expansion of austenitic stainless
steel is very high, so extra precaution is to be taken while
loading the heat-treatment furnace with a number of compo-
nents. There should be proper spacing to accommodate ther-
mal expansion between two adjacent components; because
austenite is soft and highly deformable, stacking of items must
be done judiciously so as to avoid such deformation. The
conventional austenitic stainless steels are supposed to be
austenitic at all the temperatures, therefore are not amenable
to quench hardening. However hardening can be obtained by
202 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Table 7 Composition of some ferritic stainless steels (in wt %)
Type C Mn Si Cr
405 0.08 1 1 11.5–14.5
430 0.12 1 1 10.5–11.75
434 0.12 1 1 16
444 0.12 1 1 17.5–19.5
446 0.12 1 1 23–27
Source: ASM Hand Book, Vol. 1.
Figure 23 Microstructure of Ferrtic grain AISI409 stainless steel
sheet showing fully ferritic structure. Courtesy: George F. Vander
Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Buehler Ltd. Vander Voort,
G. F. The Microstructure of Stainless Steels.
cold working the steel. If welding is done, then the steel must
be subjected to heat treatment. In general the conventional
austenitic stainless steels are heated to a temperature above
1000 1C, within a preferable range of 1050–1150 1C, held
there for sufficient time to dissolve the carbides originally
present in the microstructure and then cooling very fast.
The annealing temperature may somewhat vary for steels of
different compositions and a higher temperature is recom-
mended for those compositions where the chances of presence
of carbides in the original microstructure is high. The soaking
time to be spent for annealing operation depends upon the
section size. However 50–60 min for 25 mm of the section size
is the thumb rule which is normally followed to determine the
holding time at the annealing temperature. In general water
quenching is recommended for achieving maximum amount
of corrosion resistance. Although in some variety of steels, oil
quenching is also done. Conventional austenitic stainless steel
experiences the precipitation of Cr-carbides between 425 and
900 1C if the steel is exposed within this temperature region
for a long period of time. Thus the annealing temperature
must be considerably above 900 1C so that all the carbides can
be fully dissolved in austenite before it is subjected to
quenching treatment; moreover the rate of dissolution of
chromium carbide being quite sluggish, a high-annealing
temperature around 1100 1C is generally recommended for
Ni P S Other
– 0.04 0.03 0.01–0.03 Al
– 0.04 0.03
– 0.04 0.03
– 0.04 0.03 1.75–1.25 Mo; 5  %C min 1.10 Ti
– 0.04 0.03
successful implementation of commercial heat treatment of
austenitic steel. In order to limit the grain growth to an
acceptable limit, the annealing temperature must not be much
higher than 1100 1C. The microstructure of AISI 304 steel in
Figure 24 exhibits a fully austenitic structure.
As stated earlier the quenching must be done very rapidly;
if size, shape, and weight put a concern for distortion due to
rapid cooling then quenching in forced air blast may be
recommended. In some cases extremely thin sectioned parts
cannot withstand a forced air blast without having excessive
distortion; in such cases, normal air cooling is recommended.
In cases of ultrathin components a slow air cooling may bring
down the temperature of the component from annealing
temperature of 1100 1C down to room temperature within a
very short time. This short duration may not trigger the pre-
cipitation of chromium carbides in steels whose carbon con-
tent is relatively less to exceed the solubility product of carbon
and chromium in FCC austenite. But in cases where the
composition is such that this type of air cooling cannot pre-
vent the precipitation of carbides then corrosion resistance is
required to be sacrificed. To avoid this situation stabilized
grade of austenitic stainless steel or extra low-carbon steels are
to be invoked.
In the stabilized grade, the presence of Ti or Nb inhibits
intergranular precipitation of chromium carbide and thereby
helps to avoid sensitization. Nevertheless these alloys must be
annealed to relieve the stresses present in the material and to
increase the ductility properties of the same with additional
stabilization of austenite.
Normally the steel is heated to a temperature up to 1000–
1050 1C followed by a rapid cooling. In this particular case the
dissolution of carbide is a greater concern than the precipita-
tion of these carbides during cooling. Thus the annealing
temperature and the soaking time are more important for
consideration than the cooling rate. Heating temperature must
be high enough to dissolve all the carbides in least possible
time and with limited grain growth. In this respect a maximum
temperature of 1050–1060 1C is reasonably acceptable with
a time consideration of 50–60 min per 25 mm thickness.
Whenever maximum corrosion resistance from stabilized
variety is required to be obtained, the recommendable heat
treatment should comprise of heating the material to 1000 1C
and holding at this temperature for 5 h and then followed by
rapid cooling to room temperature.
The extra low-carbon austenitic stainless steel does not
have the problem of sensitization because of the fact that there
is no scope for carbide formation and hence unlike non-sta-
bilized grades this variety of steel does not require any rapid
quenching from a high temperature (Figure 25). Nevertheless
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 203

Table 8 Chemical composition of some austenitic stainless steel (in wt %)

Type C Mn Si Cr Ni P S Other

202 0.15 7.5 1 17 4–6 0.06 0.03 0.25N

302 0.15 2 1 17–19 8–10 0.045 0.03 –
304 0.08 2 1 18–20 8–10.5 0.045 0.03 –
304L 0.03 2 1 18–20 8–12 0.045 0.03 –
310 0.25 2 1.5 24–26 19–22 0.045 0.03 –
308 0.08 2 1 19–21 10–12 0.045 0.03 –
310S 0.08 2 1.5 24–26 19–22 0.045 0.03 –
316 0.08 2 1 16–18 10–14 0.045 0.03 2–3 Mn
316L 0.03 2 1 16–18 10–14 0.045 0.03 2–3 Mo
316LN 0.03 2 1 16–18 10–14 0.045 0.03 2–3Mo; 0.10–0.16N
321 0.08 2 1 17–19 9–12 0.045 0.03 5  %C min Ti
347 0.08 2 1 17–19 9–13 0.045 0.03 10  %C min Nb
347H 0.04–0.10 2 1 17–19 9–13 0.045 0.03 8  %C min to 1.0 max Nb

Source: ASM Hand Book, Vol. 1.

Figure 24 Microstructure of solution annealed AISI 304 austenitic Figure 25 Microstructure of AISI 316L steel Solution annealed at
steel revealing austenite grains; annealing twin is also observed X100. 950 1C showing austenite grains. (In 50 m). Courtesy: George F.
Courtesy: George F. Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Buehler Ltd. Vander
Buehler Ltd. Vander Voort, G. F. The Microstructure of Stainless Steels. Voort, G. F. The Microstructure of Stainless Steels.

this steel should not be employed for long-time service within
the sensitizing region, 540–760 1C.
Stress relieving of austenitic stainless steel is required if
parts made of this steel is exposed to stress-corrosion envir-
onment. The steel is then heated to 900 1C or above and a
slower cooling is more effective to remove stresses, as the fast
water cooling may induce thermal stresses.
Selection of heat-treatment process is quite critical; the
processes which aim to avoid sensitization and hence to
improve corrosion resistance are those which act in opposition
to stress relieving. So stress relieving is to be judiciously
applied with an eye to compositional response to such treat-
ment without bringing about sensitization.
The following factors are required to be given consideration
during heat treatment of austenitic stainless steel:
• Heating in the range of 470–850 1C envisages carbide
precipitation at the austenite grain boundaries. In ferritic
stainless steel carbides first form discontinuously within the
ferrite grains and then at the grain boundary.
• In high molybdenum-bearing steel s (sigma) phase form
within 550–900 1C. This deteriorates corrosion resistance
and ductility.
• Slow cooling of non-stabilized grades may experience
sensitization or s-phase formation or both.
• Heating above 1000–1130 1C enables dissolution of all
carbides in austenite.
• Stress relieving may be required only in special situation,
and should be practiced only if it is otherwise favorable in
respect of retaining corrosion resistance.
Due to presence of molybdenum, 316L and 317L are prone
to s phase embrittlement due to a long-time exposure between
660 and 860 1C; corrosion resistance can however be improved
by stabilization annealing at 900 1C for 2–3 h; after this any
stress relieving operation at 640–650 1C will not deteriorate the
204 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
corrosion properties. Heat treatment of high-nitrogen austenitic
steel is exactly similar to conventional austenitic stainless steel
as problems encountered due to sensitization and distortion are
identical in either case. The steels like 316N or 304N are aus-
tenitized at 1020–1100 1C and following holding for 1 h per
25 mm section thickness the jobs are rapidly cooled in water.
High alloy grade steels are heated to higher temperature range
1125–1150 1C with a specific purpose. Due to addition of high
amount of molybdenum to reduce pitting corrosion and to
improve high-temperature resistance, the concerned alloys are
produced with very low carbon; nevertheless the steels are
prone to δ ferrite formation at a high temperature of austeni-
tization. Again at temperature just below 900 1C, these steels are
susceptible to s phase formation. Therefore neither a low
temperature nor a high temperature is convenient for avoidance
of property degradation. So austenitization is carried within
narrow temperature regime. If stress relieving is to be carried out
at a temperature lower than the annealing temperature, holding
time must be of minimum possible value.
2.8.7.4 Duplex Stainless Steel
This type of steel is a combination of ferrite and austenite; in
some compositions ferrite content is higher and in others
austenite content is higher. Also ferrite and austenite contents
may balance in some steels. Table 9 gives some typical com-
position. Duplex steels like 329 are austenitized at tempera-
tures between 925 and 975 1C, held there for predetermined
period of time and then cooled quite rapidly but rapidity of
cooling must be consistent with limitations of distortion.30,31
For the molybdenum bearing duplex steels (46% Mo), the
austenitization temperature is kept at higher level say 1000–
1050 1C and then the steel in quenched rapidly to room
temperature. A typical micrograph of the same steel is shown
in Figure 26.
Table 9 Chemical composition of type 329 duplex stainless steel
(in wt%)
Type C Mn Si Cr Ni P S Other
329 0.20 1 0.75 23–28 2.5–5 0.04 0.03 1–2 Mo
Figure 26 Typical micrographs of duplex stainless steel. International Molybdenum Association, www.imoa.info; Nippon Steel and Sumitomo
Metal, www.nssmc.com (public domain).
2.8.7.5 Precipitation Hardenable Stainless Steel
Chemical composition of precipitation hardenable stainless
steel is given Table 10.
In the heat treatment of precipitation hardenable stainless
steels the processes to perform are:
Cleaning: All parts to be heat treated are first subjected to
cleaning operation prior to heat treatment. The chemical
composition of precipitation hardenable steels is selected very
judiciously and therefore it is important that the composition
does not alter due to any impurity at the surface. For example,
if surface of component contains any lubricants, such as oil,
etc., carburization may take place during heat treatment and
this will lead to unpredictable product. The cleaning of
components is carried out by techniques like abrasive blast
cleaning.
Furnace atmosphere: Heat treatment of precipitation hard-
enable stainless steels cannot be done in any furnace which is
fired with oil or natural gas as this will alter the composition of
the steel, most commonly carburization. Induction furnaces or
gas fired radial tube furnaces are suitable in heat treating this
kind of steel. Creating controlled reducing atmosphere either
in the form of dissociated ammonia or by any other means
bears a risk of nitriding or carburizing, which are detrimental
to the final properties of the product. Argon or helium
atmosphere may be used for austenite formation at tempera-
ture 950 1C or higher. The procedures consisting of full
annealing, austenite conditioning, effecting the phase trans-
formation, and finally aging of the steel are narrated below:
• Solutionizing is carried out at temperature of 1050–
1070 1C, and held there for 1 h per each 25 mm section for
annealing and cooling to room temperature in water.
• Austenite conditioning is generally carried out at a tem-
perature of 900–950 1C for a period of 1 h per 25 mm
Table 10 Composition of precipitation hardenable stainless steel
(in wt%)
Type C Mn Si Cr Ni P S Other
17–7-PH .09 1 1 16–18 6.5–7.75 0.04 0.04 0.75–1.5 Al
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 205

thickness followed by air cooling or oil quenching for possible value. Figures 27 and 28 show the microstructure of
heaviest section. 17–4PH steels under different treatment conditions.
• The transformation cooling is carried out from the solu-
tionizing temperature by water cooling to room tempera-
ture and then cooling to subzero temperature within the 2.8.8 Maraging Steel
range of
70 to
80 1C.
Maraging steels are ultrahigh-strength steels containing high
• The aging is carried out at temperature of 520–550 1C for
amount substitutional alloying element at very low-carbon
the time period as predetermined by the final properties
required, followed by air cooling. content. These steels are very much suitable for high-strength
high-toughness applications. It is known that carbon steels
In all cases of heat treatment of this stainless steel, furnace with or without alloying elements derives its strength and
atmosphere must not carburize the steel under any condition. toughness at a balanced amount by first forming martensite
An excessive oxidizing environment is not very welcome; the which is an extremely hard phase in Fe–C alloy system and is a
carbonaceous environment inside the heat-treatment furnace super saturated solid solution of carbon in body centered
is also prohibited, as this leads to carbon pick up; higher tetragonal ferrite, this hard constituent is subsequently
carbon pick up implies greater risk of sensitization. tempered where fine scale precipitation of carbide enables
Due to presence of molybdenum, 316L and 317L are prone
to s phase embrittlement32 due to a long-time exposure
between 660 and 860 1C; corrosion resistance can however be
improved by stabilization annealing at 900 1C for 2–3 h; after
this any stress relieving operation at 640–650 1C will not
deteriorate the corrosion properties.
Heat treatment of high-nitrogen austenitic steel is exactly
similar to conventional austenitic stainless steel as problems
encountered due to sensitization and distortion are identical
in either case. The steels like 316N or 304N are austenitized at
1020–1100 1C and following holding for 1 h per 25 mm sec-
tion thickness the jobs are rapidly cooled in water.
High-alloy grade steels are heated to higher temperature
range 1125–1150 1C with a specific purpose. Due to addition
of high amount of molybdenum to reduce pitting corrosion
and to improve high-temperature resistance, the concerned
alloys are produced with very low carbon; nevertheless the
steels are prone to δ ferrite formation at a high temperature
of austenitization. Again at temperature just below 900 1C,
these steels are susceptible to s phase formation. Therefore
neither a low temperature nor a high temperature is con-
venient for avoidance of property degradation. So austeniti- Figure 28 Microstructure of 17–4 PH steel solutionized at 1100 1C
zation is carried within narrow temperature regime. If stress oil quenched and followed by aging at 480 1C. Courtesy: George F.
relieving is to be carried out at a temperature lower than the Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Buehler Ltd. Vander
annealing temperature, holding time must be of minimum Voort, G. F. The Microstructure of Stainless Steels.

Figure 27 (a) Microstructure of 17–4PH (precipitation hardenable stainless steel) solutionized but unaged, showing austenite grain boundaries,
and (b) martensite prior austenite grain boundary and delta ferrite. Courtesy: George F. Vander Voort, Director, Research and Technology, Buehler
Ltd. The Microstructure of Stainless Steels.
206 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Table 11 Chemical composition and properties after solutionizing at 820 1C
Alloy Composition
18Ni maraging steel (series) Ni Mo Co
200 18 3–3.5 8.5
250 18 B5 B7.75
300 18 B5 B9
350 18 4 12.5
Note: Carbon content of all the steels are kept below 0.03 wt%.
Source: ASM Hand Book, Vol. 4; p. 529.
Figure 29 Metastable phase diagram of iron–nickel system. ASM
Hand Book, Vol. 1; p. 1226.
martensite to get rid of super saturation and intimate mixture
of fine ferrite and carbide particles in the microstructure con-
fers a good amount of toughness. In contrast maraging
steel produces a very soft martensite. Fe–18Ni alloy produces
body centered cubic martensite which is very soft. This
soft martensite is strengthened to a very high magnitude by
the way of aging the martensite at an elevated temperatures;
aging leads to the formation of precipitates of different kinds
of thermally stable intermetallics to ensure a very high strength
at a high ductility level.33–35 Ternary or quaternary elements
are added to form different intermetallics as the hardening
phases.36 It is quite easy to achieve a very high fracture
toughness B150 MPa√m at ultrahigh strength level around
1650–1700 Mpa. The nominal composition of some standard
commercial maraging steels are given in Table 11.
Martensitic reaction is reversible; however due to large
thermal hysteresis the reversion from martensite to austenite
transformation is considerably delayed. It is for this reason,
heating of martensite to about 600–650 1C enables inter-
metallic precipitates to form; these intermetallic phases are the
chief hardening phases in maraging steel.
The martensite in maraging steel is formed after cooling the
material from the austenitizing temperature which can be selec-
ted from the metastable equilibrium diagram Figure 29 and the
steel is held at the austenitizing temperature for sufficient time
so as to make up homogenous austenite phase. This austenite is
Properties
Ti Al Y.S. Ultimate tensile strength %E RC RA
0.2 0.1 B800 965–1000 17–18 28–30 72–80
0.4 0.1 750–900 1000–1140 8–16 28–35 55–70
0.6 0.1 760–900 1000–1170 6–15 30–32 45–60
1.6 0.1
of FCC crystal structure and after cooling it transforms to
BCC martensite through diffusion less shear transformation.
The transformation takes place until Ms temperature is
reached and the Ms temperature of most of the varieties of
maraging steel ranges between 200 and 300 1C. This implies that
maraging steels are fully martensitic at room temperature. These
martensites are internally faulted with dislocations due to lattice
invariant deformation. The lath martensites in maraging steels
do not contain any reversible faults like twins. The alloying
elements added to maraging steels influence the Ms temperature
but the CCT diagram of the steel would indicate that diffusional
decomposition of austenite in this maraging steel is not possible
(ASM Metal Hand Book, Vol.4). Thus the microstructure of
Fe–18%Ni maraging steel is comprised of lath martensite. If
nickel percentage is increased beyond 25 wt.%, the martensite
becomes internally twinned so as to accommodate macroscopic
shape deformation accompanying martensitic transformation.
Most of the maraging steels contain cobalt, which enables
the addition of those alloying elements which lowers the Ms
temperature but can form intermetallic phases. The main task
of strengthening maraging steels is to produce 100% marten-
site, which upon aging must experience adequate amount of
precipitate formation. This leads to age hardening. To assist
the formation of different intermetallics, addition of titanium,
aluminum, molybdenum etc., are mandatory. However all
these elements are known to lower the Ms temperature. Unless
Ms temperature is kept at a high level it is not possible to
produce 100% martensite; the Ms temperature must be kept
around 200–300 1C and cobalt assists in achieving the desired
Ms temperature.
Cobalt is the only alloying element, known to raise Ms
temperature in maraging steels; so addition of cobalt up to
6–8% nullifies the effect of other elements in depressing the
Ms temperature, which otherwise are considered to be very
important alloying elements to give rise to precipitation hard-
ening. Since retained austenite is not a concern in most of the
commercially available maraging steels, subzero treatment prior
to aging is not needed. However if addition of alloying elements
like Mo, Ti, and Al are done at a high level, retained austenite
may occur in the microstructure and this retained austenite is
considered to be a highly unwanted phase in maraging steel.
There are two possibilities during aging of maraging steels,
which are:
1. Firstly, the reversible transformation of martensite to aus-
tenite, if the selected aging temperature lies above the
austenite start temperature.
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
2. Second, formation of aging precipitates, while the mar-
tensite is heated to a temperature below the austenite start
temperature.
Aging for a prolonged period of time at a relatively high
temperature may lead to formation of high-alloy austenite,
known as reverted austenite. This kind of reversion reaction
takes place quite significantly, if aging is done at a temperature
higher than 550 1C.
Like all other age hardening systems, maraging steels have
their own characteristic aging sequences. The elements like Ti
and Be act as strong hardeners, whereas the alloying elements
like Al, Ni, Mo, Mn, Si, tantalum, tungsten, and niobium leads
to moderate hardening. Again there are elements like Co, Cu,
and Zr which are known as weak hardeners.37,38
In a molybdenum bearing alloy, metastable Ni3Mo of
orthorhombic crystal structure is commonly observed as pre-
cipitate phase; this forms on dislocations or at the lath
boundaries. In case of titanium containing steels the pre-
cipitated phase is identified as Ni3Ti which has high potential
for strengthening the steel.
Cobalt does not directly take part in aging reaction but a
phenomenon called Co–Mo interaction lends a definite con-
tribution to the aging effect of maraging steels. Cobalt is
known to reduce the solubility of Mo in BCC matrix; as a result
higher volume fraction of fine sized Ni3Mo precipitates are
formed in maraging steel containing cobalt and molybdenum.
Molybdenum and cobalt exert synergistic effect on strength-
ening of maraging steels.
2.8.8.1 Heat-Treatment Sequence of Maraging Steels
The different steps followed in the heat treatment of maraging
steel is shown schematically in the Figure 30.
Solutionizing: As stated earlier the first stage of heat treat-
ment of maraging steels is solution-annealing treatment, car-
ried out at a temperature sufficiently above the austenite finish
temperature. In general the commercial variety of maraging
steels is solutionized at 815–825 1C for 1 h per each 20 mm
thickness of workpiece. It is advisable to have controlled
atmosphere furnace and many a times inert gas atmosphere
like jet of nitrogen and argon at a positive pressure is con-
sidered suitable for the heat treatment of maraging steels; this
Figure 30 Heat treatment of maraging steel.
207
is because maraging steels are prone to the chemical degra-
dation during heating at a high temperature.
Casting of maraging steels are subjected to annealing
treatment by heating them to a high temperature like 1150 1C
followed by air cooling. Subsequent to this high-temperature
treatment the material is reheated to 600 1C held for 1 h and
then cooled in air.
The 600 1C heating realizes the formation of reverted aus-
tenite which gets distributed throughout the matrix. These
reverted austenite particles act as the nucleation sites during
the following solutionizing treatment, so that a fine grained
austenite can be formed.
After solutionizing, maraging steels are cooled to room
temperature. The rate of cooling is of less significance because
formation of martensite in maraging steel is inevitable as per
dictates of CCT diagram. However it is to be understood that
the cooling must be carried out till room temperature, so that
100% martensite formation is envisaged. Because maraging
steel is quite strong and the volume change in martensitic
transformation of maraging steels is quite small, these steels
are not susceptible to quench cracking. Martensite formed after
cooling is aged at a temperature between 480 and 500 1C.
The microstructure of quenched and aged maraging steel of
type of grade 18Ni250 is shown in Figure 31. The two
microstructures of the same sample at different magnifications
essentially demonstrate the presence of martensite phase
without any evidence of reverted austenite phase; the presence
of precipitates, though hinted in Figure 31 must require
confirmation by high-resolution microscopy. As stated earlier
the aging temperature should be kept below 500 1C so as to
avoid reversion reaction. By aging at this temperature the
commercial maraging steels attain a hardness value of HRc
52–54. The properties of the maraged alloys are shown in the
Table 11.
2.8.8.2 Embrittlement in Maraging Steel
If maraging steel contains carbon in excess of 0.03 wt% and is
alloyed with Ti, there is a great chance of forming precipitates
of titanium carbides and titanium carbonitride phases which
form at the prior austenite grain boundaries.39,40 However
proper heat treatment can avoid this unwanted precipitation.
Nevertheless, embrittlement becomes inevitable due to heating
maraging steel at high temperature, i.e., 1180 1C and above,
where all carbon atoms in maraging steel go in solution in
austenite followed by slow cooling or holding the steel at a
temperature region of 750–1050 1C. Precipitation of carbon
takes place as grain boundary phase and thus embrittlement
results. However if it is required to heat this steel to such a high
temperature as in casting, the cooling of the steel from the high
temperature must be quite rapid through the temperature
region of 1100–750 1C so that the precipitation of carbon at
grain boundaries can be avoided and hence the problem of
embrittlement can be overcome.
The typical age hardening temperature ranges between 450
and 550 1C with long holding time say 4–12 h; subsequent
cooling is done in air. However the time and temperature
used for tempering of maraging steels are quite important to
determine the final properties of the steel. In initial period of
aging the hardening is quite rapid but beyond a definite period
208 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
Figure 31 Microstructures of 18Ni250 maraging steel showing martensite after solutioning and aging. Courtesy: George F. Vander Voort,
Director, Research and Technology Buehler Ltd. Vander Voort, G. F. The Microstructure of Ferrous Alloys.
of aging, particle coarsening takes place and the hardness of
the maraging steel reduces. If aging is carried out at a low
temperature, the particle coarsening will not be there and age
hardening curve may be seen to be a continuous hardening
curve. Nevertheless the hardness of the aged martensite must be
kept around HRC 52–53 in order to achieve the desired tensile
strength of the order of 2000–2500 MPa.
2.8.9 Heat Treatment of Transformation Induced
Plasticity Steel
Transformation induced plasticity (TRIP) steel is a class of steel
with ferrite–bainite microstructure and is capable of providing
TRIP. Normally these types of ferrite–bainite steels contain a
good amount of retained austenite due to incomplete bainitic
reaction. These low-carbon steels containing around 0.15% C
with silicon of the order of 1.7%, are intercritically annealed so
that under equilibrium at the intercritical annealing tempera-
ture, a mixed ferrite–austenite microstructure exists. The aus-
tenite in the intercritical region is richer in carbon and is given
to react isothermally in the bainitic region. The decomposition
of austenite to bainite does not go to completion due to for-
mation of low-carbon bainitic ferrite.
The retained austenite is thermally stable due to high solute
content, which decreases the Ms temperature to below room
temperature.41,42 However Md temperature, the temperature
below which martensite transformation may take place by
stress induced mode, is very near to room temperature for this
kind of steels and any crack propagating through the material
will have high-stress concentration ahead of it. If a moving
crack comes across a retained austenite particle present in
microstructure, the mechanically unstable austenite undergoes
stress induced martensitic transformation. These hard mar-
tensites are required to be fractured if crack is to propagate
through these particles. Since the stress concentration ahead of
crack tip is not so high as to be able to fracture the hard
martensite, the crack stops propagating. Thus effective plasti-
city is artificially improved.
The heat treatment of TRIP steel is therefore as follows:
• Normalizing is done by heating the steel to 900 1C and
holding there for suitable period of time followed by
cooling in still air.
• Heating at intercritical temperature say 750 1C, holding
there for specified period of time which depends upon
section size. The holding time must be sufficiently high to
achieve equilibrium. At this temperature the microstructure
of the steel consists of ferrite–austenite mixture of com-
position as may be deduced from Figure 32(a).
• The steel is then quenched in a bath kept at temperature
350–250 1C; the austenite transforms to bainite (Figure 32(b)).
Due to incomplete bainitic reaction some high-solute
austenite is retained within bainite and this is responsible
to impart TRIP. The heat-treatment cycle is shown in
Figure 32(c).
2.8.10 Dual Phase Steels
Duplex ferrite martensite steels are first generation AHSSs and
are employed in automotive sectors. The composition of a
commercial grade dual phase steel, DP500 is given in Table 12.
The microstructure of dual phase steel comprises of mar-
tensite islands in a matrix of ferrite. The steel is heated to some
intercritical temperature, Ti and held there for sufficient time
so as to attain equilibrium between two phases, ferrite and
austenite. Figure 32(a) shows that at temperature Ti, ferrite of
composition Z is in equilibrium with austenite of composition
Y and after equilibration the steel is rapidly quenched to room
temperature.44,45 High-carbon austenite transforms to mar-
tensite and the microstructure is comprised of islands of
martensite in the matrix of ferrite as shown in Figure 33.
The CCT diagram of this steel along with heat-treatment
cycle is shown in Figure 34. It is to be understood that the
formation of high-carbon martensite is associated with large
magnitude of volume change. This volume change is accom-
modated with the surrounding rigid matrix by way of dis-
location, as shown in Figure 34.
The transmission electron microstructure is shown in
Figure 35. It clearly shows huge dislocation in ferrite matrix
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications 209

Figure 32 (a) Intercritical annealing temperature shown by a line, (b) Optical photomicrograph of duplex ferrite–bainite TRIP steel,43 (c) heat-
treatment cycle of TRIP steel, and (d) schematic microstructure of TRIP steel. (b) Andrade-Carozzo, V.; Jacques, P. J. Interactions between
Recrystallisation and Phase Transformations during Annealing of Cold Rolled Nb-Added TRIP-Aided Steels. Mater. Sci. Forum 2007, 539–543;
4649; (c), (d) www.worldautosteel.org (public domain).

Table 12 Chemical composition of DP500 Steel (in wt%)

Fe C Si Mn P S N Cr Ti Ni
98.2 0.06 0.308 0.007 0.007 0.005 0.012 0.027 0.002 0.035

V Sn Nb As Zr W Co Pb Mo Al
0.009 0.057 0.057 0.002 o0.010 o0.010 0.005 o0.001 o0.001 0.226

surrounding the martensite crystals. The martensite itself is
also highly dislocated due to lattice invariant deformation.
Thus commercial dual phase steel is intercritically annealed
and rapidly quenched in water. Due to fast quenching, the
ferrite remains supersaturated. These steels are also subjected
to another heat treatment called ‘Bake hardening.’ Bake hard-
ening is a process where the component after being painted is
baked at low temperature viz. 160–170 1C. At this temperature
the carbon in solution in ferrite becomes more mobile and can
migrate to the nearby dislocations if available.
From the heat-treatment schedule of dual phase steel, it
appears that the islands of martensite can be made homo-
geneous and uniformly distributed throughout the matrix. It
may lead to a very uniform distribution of dislocations gen-
erated around individual martensite particle. The steel is now
painted and then baking is carried out by annealing the steel at
low temperature of 160 1C. The carbon from supersaturated
ferrite starts migrating to dislocations around martensite par-
ticles and locks the dislocation. This is typically similar to
strain aging and yield strength of steel is improved.47,48
210 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications

2.8.10.1 Rapid Heating Producing Ultrafine Grained Dual superheat reduces the critical nucleus size of austenite as well
Phase Steel as the energy of nucleation.49,50 This leads to formation of
ultrafine austenite which upon transformation produces fine
Ultrafine grained duplex ferrite–martensite steels leads to fur-
microstructure. A low holding time does not allow grain coar-
ther improvement in properties than the classical dual phase
sening and so fine structure formation is possible.
steel. Thermomechanical treatment carried out before inter-
critical annealing heat treatment has been known to have pro-
duced fine grained ferrite in dual phase steels. However through
the employment of rapid heating it is also possible to develop
very fine microstructures in steels using rapid transformation
annealing technique. Steel containing 0.17 wt.% carbon
0.85 wt.% manganese can be subjected to rapid heating tech-
nology to produce ultrafine grained ferrite in dual phase steel.
The initial microstructure can be fine ferrite – pearlite structure
or the tempered martensitic structure. The rapid heating at the
rate of 300 C s
1 produces austenite at a high degree of super-
heating; the degree of superheating is the decisive factor in fix-
ing the energy of nucleation DGmax. Transformation at high

Figure 35 Transmission electron micrograph of dual phase steel

showing dislocations around martensite.46 Chang Peng-Heng. Temper-
Figure 33 Ferrite–martensite structure in a dual phase steel. www. Aging of Continuously Annealed Low Carbon Dual Phase Steel. Metall.
worldautosteel.org (open). Trans. A 1984, 15.1; pp. 73–86.

Figure 34 Dual phase steel showing dislocations around martensite particle and time temperature relationship. Presentation by Prof. Bleck on
“Dual Phase Steel DP500”, Chemistry, Microstructure processing, RWTH AACHEN University.
 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
2.8.10.2 Bake Hardened Dual Phase Steels
Bake hardening has now been recognized as an effective heat
treatment to impart extra strengthening in AHSSs. Bake hard-
ening is essentially a strain aging treatment. The stretch formed
steel panels are subjected to a small amount of prestrain; this
prestrain introduces dislocations. The ferrite in these steels
contains 15–20 ppm carbon in solid solution. The prestrained
steel panels are painted and then given to bake at 170 @C. At this
temperature the carbon atoms in ferrite become more mobile
and migrate to the nearby dislocations. The carbon atoms are
segregated there and creates Lomer Cottrell atmosphere; the
dislocations are anchored by these carbon atoms. Extra stress is
therefore required for dislocations to get away from the above
Lomer Cottrell barriers and thus the steels experience extra
strengthening, known as bake hardening.51–54 However it is
apparent that for bake hardening to be uniformly effective, the
dislocation population should be quite high and should be
uniform in distribution. In case of dual phase steel, it is possible
to have uniform distribution of numerous martensite islands
of high carbon content. The volume strain accompanying
Bain distortion creates dislocation around martensite particles.
Numerous the martensite regions higher is the uniformity in
dislocation distribution and thus bake hardening will be more
effective. Similar possibility exists in TRIP aided dual phase
ferrite bainite steels. In this case it is required to have a uniform
distribution of bainitic regions around which one may expect
dislocations to be present. So, proper heat treatment to produce
ferrite bainite steels with finely divided bainitic regions
throughout the matrix envisages efficient bake hardening.
2.8.11 Heat Treatment of Steel Casting
Heat treatment of steel casting is a tricky job as most of the
commercial C–Mn steel castings show cellular dendritic seg-
regation of impurity elements along the grain boundary. In
order to achieve a uniform property of steel castings a judi-
cious heat-treatment strategy must be adopted.
Let us take the example of heat treatment of steel castings
made of the following composition: 0.28–0.32% C; 1.5–1.7%
Mn; 0.4–0.6% Si; 0.25–0.3% Mo; and 0.025% S, P maximum.
This steel casting is very commonly used in railways. The heat
treatment to secure uniform properties in this steel are:
• Homogenization: Since the impurity elements like Si, Mn,
etc., are segregated at the grain boundary, the casting must
be homogenized to destroy dendritic structure. To get
homogenized microstructure in the casting, component
must be heated to a very high temperature, where mobility
of substitutional alloying element is quite high and the
homogeneous composition of austenite is obtained. The
heat treatment is carried out in between 1050 and 1100 1C
or higher. If the steel is deoxidized by aluminum or if it
contains microalloying element like Ti, V, or niobium, the
steel will be inherently fine grained and will exhibit resis-
tance to coarsening. The fine precipitation of AlN or Ti(C,
N) inhibits grain boundary movement and hence retard
tendency for grain coarsening.
However choice of avoidance of grain coarsening and dec-
arburization is not included in the concept of homogenization,
211
especially when major target of the process is to completely
eliminate the microsegregation. Sufficient time is allowed for
soaking at high-homogenizing temperature and the exact time
is to be decided under the perspective of plant condition.
The total charge, with spacing between the charges, the weight
of individual item will all decide the total time for homo-
genization. After soaking, the steel casting should be allowed
to cool slowly. The cooling rate is to be as slow as possible.
Cooling process may be stopped when temperature of charge
inside the furnace reaches 400 1C.
• After the homogenization, conventional annealing is done
for which the steel castings are heated within the tem-
perature range of 880–900 1C and held there for 1 h per
each 25 mm section thickness; following this the castings
are cooled in furnace. Where conventional annealing is
not required, the casting may be normalized after homo-
genization annealing. For this the charge is heated to
860–880 1C and held there for 1 h per 25 mm of thickness.
After soaking at a higher temperature, when the pallet/
tray is taken out for quenching, there may be quenching
delay irrespective of the efficacy of the available material
handling system, unless the entire process is automated
through robotics. Heat treater must raise the temperature of
the charge by 20–30 1C higher than the stipulated tem-
perature such that the unavoidable delay in quenching can
be taken care.
• In normalizing special care must be taken during cooling. If
castings are stacked in layers, the cooling of the over lying
casting, releases heat which interferes with the cooling of
the adjoining casting thereby creating a very complex
situation in respect of achieving predictable cooling rate for
all the castings put inside the furnace.
It is wiser to make use of adequate number of cooling fans
positioned at different location, which may ensure a better
cooling of castings during normalizing. Sometimes forced
air quenching is a recommended heat-treatment process.
• After normalizing, tempering is required to be carried out
to achieve desired properties. The castings are then put in
tempering furnace and tempering is performed normally in
the temperature range of 500–550 1C and held there for the
preselected period of time. As discussed earlier, the time
and the temperature of holding are decided on the basis of
final property requirements.
The above example is a generic heat-treatment cycle of steel
casting as can be seen in Figure 36. The time, temperature, or
Figure 36 Heat-treatment cycle for steel casting.
212 Heat Treatment of Commercial Steels for Engineering Applications
the nature of process may be different in cases where different
kinds of alloy steels are heat treated. Nevertheless, homo-
genization at high temperature, conventional full annealing,
normalizing, and finally tempering are the basic steps in heat
treatment of steel casting.
In industrial situation another major problem is related to
material handling.
This particular issue is very critical in case the heat treat-
ment of casting which requires quenching in oil, water, or any
other solvent.
See also: 2.1 Fundamentals of Heat Treating Metals and Alloys.
2.2 Hardenability of Steel
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Further Reading
ASM (American Society for Metals) Handbook, Vol. 1; ASM International Handbook
Committee: Materials Park, OH, 1991a.
ASM (American Society for Metals) Handbook, Vol. 4: Heat Treating; ASM
International Handbook Committee: Materials Park, OH, 1991b.
ASM (American Society for Metals) Handbook, Vol. 9: Metallography and
Microstructure; ASM International Handbook Committee: Materials Park, OH,
2004.
Lakthtin, Y. Engineering Physical Metallurgy; Mir Publishers: Moscow, 1998.
Robert, G. N. Duplex Stainless Steel; Woodhead Publishing Ltd, 1997.
Sydney, A. H. Introduction to Physical Metallurgy; Mc Graw Hill Education: India,
1974.