Presented by Weldon Mak Makela Senior Failure Analysis Engineer Materials Testing & Analysis Group, Element St. Paul
Heat Treating
Heat Treating
Heat Treatment
What is heat treatment? Hardenability. Heat treatments to strengthen or harden an alloy. Through hardening. Surface hardening. Precipitation hardening. Tempering. Heat treatments to lower strength or soften an alloy. Heat treatments for welding.
Heat Treating
Sources
Metals Handbooks, 10th Edition, Volume 4: Heat Treating, ASM International, 1991. Isothermal Transformation Diagrams, United States Steel Corporation, 3rd Edition, 1963. Grossman, M. A. and Bain, E. C., Principals of Heat Treatment, American Society for Metals, 1968. Welding Handbook, 8th Edition, Volume 1: Welding Technology, American Welding Society, 1991. Metals Handbook, 9th Edition, Volume 6: Welding, Brazing and Soldering, ASM International, 1983.
Heat Treating
Heat Treating
Heat Treating
Heat Treating
Hardenability of Steels
The ability to harden or strengthen a steel through heat treatment by quenching from the upper critical temperature to: - Form martensite. - Form bainite. - Quenching is a rapid cool from the upper critical temperature intended to miss the nose of the time-temperature-transformation curve. Hardenability is measured as the distance below the surface where: - The metal exhibits a specific hardness. - The microstructure contains 50% martensite. Hardenability varies as a function of: - Carbon content. - Manganese content. - Other elements such as chromium, nickel and molybdenum. - Quench media and cooling rate.
Heat Treating 8
Heat Treating
Heat Treating
11
Heat Treating
12
Heat Treating
13
Tempered Martensite
Heat Treating
14
Heat Treating
16
Precipitation Hardening
Precipitation hardening is the process of heating an alloy to a high temperature to transform all alloying elements and dissolve all compounds in the microstructure to a single homogeneous phase. The alloy is then rapidly quenched to room temperature, retaining all alloying and compound forming elements in a metastable condition. Strengthening, or hardening, occurs by low temperature aging where sub-microscopic particles are uniformly precipitated throughout the microstructure. - These particles substantially strengthen the material. - Precipitation can occur over time at room temperature in some alloys. Carbon and alloy steels can not be precipitation hardened. Some aluminum, titanium, nickel, cobalt and copper base alloys are precipitation hardenable. One group of stainless steels are precipitation hardenable.
Heat Treating 17
Heat Treating
18
Case Hardening
Localized heating, quenching and tempering of the surface to produce a hard layer of martensite relative to the interior of the part. - The material could be through hardened. - The chemical composition of the material is not changed. Flame hardening-heating is accomplished using oxyacetylene or similar torches to uniformly heat the surface to the austenizing temperature. - Useful for hardening large parts or specific areas of parts. - Underlying metal structure is not altered. - Requires operator skill. Induction hardening-heating the surface of a material with induced magnetic fields. - Frequency determines depth of heating. - Very uniform and repetitive. - Easy to automate. Laser or electron beam energy can also be utilized to surface harden steels.
Heat Treating
19
Diffusion Hardening
All diffusion hardening processes produce a thin, hard, wear resistant case at the surface of a carbon or alloy steel. The chemical composition of the surface is altered. Carburizing - the process of diffusing carbon into steel at a temperature above A3 to increase the carbon content at the surface. - Usually low-carbon content steels are carburized. Carburizing changes the surface chemistry of a low-carbon content steel to a medium or high carbon content steel. - Requires a high-carbon source to be in intimate contact with the surface. - Carburizing is time-temperature-concentration dependent. - Occurs at 1600-2000F when steel is austenitic. After carburizing, the steel is quenched and tempered to produce the hard surface layer. - Gas or liquids are common sources of carbon during carburizing. - Increased surface hardness improves wear resistance and fatigue strength. De-carburizing - the process where carbon diffuses out of the surface of steel. - Carbon at the surface reacts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. - The hardenability is lowered resulting in a soft surface. - Fatigue strength and wear resistance of the material are reduced. - Results in poor response to heat treatment.
Heat Treating
20
Heat Treating
21
Heat Treating
22
Heat Treating
23
Heat Treating
24
Tempering of Steels
Tempering is a low-temperature heat treatment to substantially toughen untempered martensite. Untempered martensite is brittle with very low toughness. - Low ductility exhibiting low elongation and reduction of area. - Exhibits no necking prior to fracture. Tempering is a time-temperature relationship: - Low temperature-longer tempering time. - Higher temperature-shorter tempering time. Mechanical properties after tempering are affected by: - Tempering temperature. - Time at temperature. - Composition of the steel - carbon content, alloy content. Tempering also relieves residual stress from quenching, welding, and cold working.
Heat Treating 25
Rockwell C Ultimate Tensile Hardness, HRC Strength, ksi. 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 301 255 214 182 157 136 120 108
Heat Treating
26
Tempering Problems
Temper embrittlement can occur if: - The steel is cooled slowly from temperatures above 1065F. - The steel is held between 700-1065F for long time periods. - The result is a reduction in impact strength. - The brittleness may be caused by precipitation of trash elements to the grain boundaries. Trash elements are P, S, Sn, Se, As, etc. - The original properties may be recovered through re-heat treatment. Blue brittleness is caused by heating carbon and some alloy steels to the temperature range between 450-700F. A precipitation hardening effect occurs. - Results in increased tensile and yield strength. - Results in lower ductility and impact strength. - May be recovered by re-heat treatment.
Heat Treating
27
Heat Treating
28
Heat Treating
29
Heat Treating
30
Heat Treating
31
Heat Treating
32
Annealed Steel
Heat Treating 33
Heat Treating
35
Weldon Mak Makela Senior Failure Analyst 651 659 7275 weldon.makela@element.com
Mark Eggers Inside Sales, NDT & Metals 651 659 7349 mark.eggers@element.com
Heat Treating
36