Heat treatment

HEAT TREATMENT
DEFINITION
Heat treatment is a broad term
that includes any heating and cooling
operation or any sequence of two or
more such operation applied to any
material in order to modify its internal
structure or to alter its physical,
mechanical, or chemical properties.

HEAT TREATMENT
I.

PLASTIC
DEFORMATION
ANNEALING

II.

SIMPLE HEAT TREATMENTS ON

STEELS

III. TTT DIAGRAMS OF STEEL

AND

PLASTIC DEFORMATION
AND ANNEALING

I.

COLD AND HOT WORKING

II.

ANNEALING

COLD AND HOT WORKING

What is cold & hot working?
Deformation of materials at high
temperature has two effects such as
hardening due to plastic deformation
and
softening
due
to
recrystallization.

COLD AND HOT WORKING

For a given rate of working there is a
temperature in which both hardening
effect and softening effect balance each
other.
If the material is worked above this
temperature it is called hot working and
below it is called cold working.

COLD AND HOT WORKING

Application of Cold & Hot working
The economic way to manufacture
sheet, rod, wire, etc. from ingot is
through hot working.

COLD AND HOT WORKING

But oxidation as well as producing to
exact dimension (due to dimensional
change during cooling) of requirement
are problems.
Therefore, commercially the initial
reductions are carried out with the
material at elevated temperatures and
the final reductions are done in cold.
NEXT

ANNEALING
DEFINITION
Annealing is a heat treatment
process used to eliminate some or all
of the effects of cold working.

ANNEALING
Different stages in annealing process
are
Recovery
Recrystallization and
Grain growth.

ANNEALING
RECOVERY
The cold worked microstructure is
composed of deformed grains containing
a large number of tangled dislocations.
When the metal is heated the dislocations
moves and form a polygonized subgrain structure,
but the dislocation density is virtually
unchanged.

ANNEALING
This low temperature treatment which
removes the residual stress without
changing the dislocation density is called
recovery, it is also called stress relief anneal.
See Microstructure

ANNEALING
Effect of Recovery

The mechanical properties of the metal

are unchanged due to this operation.
This operation increases the electrical
conductivity without reducing the
strength of the material.
It also increases the
resistance of the material.

corrosion

ANNEALING
RECRYSTALLIZATION
When the temperature is still
higher rapid recovery occurs and
small new grains nucleate at the cell
boundaries of the polygonized
structure, thus eliminating most of
the dislocations.

ANNEALING
This process is called recrystallization and
the corresponding temperature is
called recrystallization temperature.
See Microstructure

The driving force for recrystallization

is the difference in internal energy
between
cold
worked
and
recrystallized microstructure.

ANNEALING

i.

Also the recrystallization temperature

is not a fixed temperature and is a
function
of
different
processing
variables:
Recrystallization temperature decreases
when the amount of cold work
increases ( below 30 - 40 % cold work
recrystallization will not occur)

ANNEALING
ii. A smaller original cold worked grain
size reduces the recrystallization
temperature by providing more sites.
iii. Increasing
the
reduces
the
temperature.

annealing
time
recrystallization

ANNEALING
iv. Higher melting point range alloys
have a higher recrystallization
temperature. Since recrystallization is
a diffusion controlled process, the
recrystallization
is
roughly
proportional to 0.4Tm Kelvin.

ANNEALING
GRAIN GROWTH
At still higher temperatures, both
recovery and recrystallization occurs
rapidly, producing a fine recrystallized
grain structure.
Now grains begins to grow
grain growth.

is called

See Microstructure

ANNEALING
Grain growth is driven by the
reduction in grain boundary area.
Grain growth is not related to cold
working therefore recrystallization or
recovery is not required for grain
growth.
NEXT

ANNEALING

Effect of annealing temperature on the

microstructure of the cold worked metals

ANNEALING

Next

a) Microstructure of a cold worked steel (90%)

b) Recrystallized after 2min at 850C

ANNEALING

Next

c) Grain growth of a 90% cold worked steel after 2 min

at 930C

Grain growth

Old grains

Recrystallization

Recovery

COLD WORK Vs ANNEALING

NEXT

%Cold work

Temperature

Effect of cold working and annealing on properties

SIMPLE HEAT TREATMENTS ON

STEELS

OBJECTIVES OF HEAT TREATMENT

DIFFERENT
PROCESS

HEAT

TREATMENT

SIMPLE HEAT TREATMENTS ON

STEELS
OBJECTIVE

To adjust mechanical, physical and

chemical properties.

To reduce internal stresses.

To resoften the steel after cold

working.

SIMPLE HEAT TREATMENTS ON

STEELS
To modify grain size.
To eliminate gases.

To change the composition of the

surface.
NEXT

SIMPLE HEAT TREATMENTS ON

STEELS
DIFFERENT HEAT TREATMENT PROCESS
1.

Full annealing

2.

Spheroidizing

3.

Normalizing

4.

Quenching

5.

Tempering

FULL ANNEALING
PURPOSE

To relieve internal stresses

To increase ductility.

To increase uniformity in phase

distribution.

FULL ANNEALING
To refine grain size.
To increase machinability.

FULL ANNEALING
PROCESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE
Heating upto 30-50C above Ac3 and
Ac1 line for hypo and hyper eutectoid
steels respectively.

And holding for a definite period and

slow cooling to room temperature.

FULL ANNEALING
Due
to
slow
cooling
the
microstructure will be nearly in
accordance
with
conditions
represented by the Fe-Fe3C phase
diagram.

FULL ANNEALING

AcM

Ac3
+

Ac1

Full Annealing

725c

Fe3C
0

%carbon

0.8

2.0

Next

SPHEROIDISING
PURPOSE
To softening and increasing the
machinability of steels.

Generally
steels.

used for high carbon

SPHEROIDISING
PROCESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE
Prolonged holding at a temperature
just below the lower critical line Ac1.
Or heating and cooling alternatively
between temperatures that are just
above and just below the Ac1 line.

SPHEROIDISING
Prolonged
holding
at
this
temperature will completely breakup
the pearlitic structure and the
cementite network.
Cementite will become spheres (
spheroidal or globular form) and will
be distributed in the ferrite matrix.

SPHEROIDISING

AcM

Ac3
+
Ac
1

725c
Spheroidising

T
Fe3C
0

%carbon

0.8

2.0

Next

NORMALISING
PURPOSE
To refine the grain size and for
improving mechanical properties.

Hardness obtained in this process is

higher than annealing process.

NORMALISING
PROCESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE
Heating to 30-50C above Ac3 and
ACM for hyper and hypo eutectoid
steels respectively.

Holding there for homogeneous

austenitization and cooling to room
temperature in still air.

NORMALISING
Less proeutectoid phases present
due to fast cooling.
Fine pearlite is formed than annealed
steels. ( since fast cooling rate
reduces the eutectoid temperature)

NORMALISING
Normalising

AcM

Ac3
+
Ac
1

725c

Fe3C
0

%carbon

0.8

2.0

Next

QUENCHING
PURPOSE
To increase the hardness of steel by
martensitic phase transformation.

To increase wear resistance and

cutting ability of steel.

QUENCHING
PROCESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE
Heating upto 30-50C above Ac3 and
Ac1 line for hypo and hyper eutectoid
steels respectively.

Rapid cooling from that temperature

to room temperature (normally in
water or oil).

Next

TEMPERING
PURPOSE
To relieve internal stress during
hardening process.

Tempering is to be done immediately

after quenching to avoid cracking.

TEMPERING
PROCESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE
Reheating
the
hardened
steel
between 100C 700 C and holding
for 1-2 hrs and cooling usually in air.

Generally
martensitic
phase
transforms to ferrite & cementite so
reduces the hardness.

Next

TTT Diagrams
DEFINITION
Phase transformation in steels is not
only a function of temperature also
of time.
Time - Temperature - Transformation
(TTT) diagram gives the relationship
between phases, temperature and
time.

TTT Diagrams
It
is
used
to
predict
the
microstructure, properties and heat
treatment required for steels.
The shape of the TTT diagram is a
consequence
of
the
eutectoid
reaction (TTT diagrams are also
called C curves due to its shape)

TTT Diagrams
TYPES OF TTT DIAGRAMS
Iso-thermal ( IT ) Diagrams
Continuous cooling transformation
( CCT ) diagrams

Fractional
Transformation

TTT (IT) Diagrams

tf

At T0
0

ts

Ps

Pf

Temperature

T0

Sigmoidal Curve

Log Time
Derivation of TTT curve from sigmoidal curve

TTT (IT) Diagrams

Transformation of eutectoid steel

TTT (IT) Diagrams

TTT Diagram of eutectoid steel

TTT (IT) Diagrams

Nucleation and growth of Pearlite
If the steel (austenite) is quenched
just below the eutectoid temperature
Te coarse pearlite is produced (due to
low nucleation rate and higher
diffusion rates)

TTT (IT) Diagrams

If the steel (austenite) is quenched at
lower
temperature
below
the
eutectoid temperature Te fine pearlite
is produced (due to high nucleation
rate and lower diffusion rates)

TTT (IT) Diagrams

Nucleation and growth of Bainite
Below the nose of the C- curve
lamellae in pearlite would have to be
extremely thin (i.e, the interfacial
area and energy is very high).

TTT (IT) Diagrams

Therefore, cementite precipitates as
discrete, rounded particle in ferrite
matrix.
This microconstituent
bainite.

is

called

TTT (IT) Diagrams

Martensitic reaction
This is a diffusion less solid state
transformation.
Transformation
only depend on
temperature, not on time ( because
transformation rate is very high)
Next

CCT Diagrams
In industrial practice, a steel is
continuously
cooled
to
room
temperature
rather
isothermal
transformation.
Diagrams produced in continuous
cooling process is called CCT
diagrams.

CCT Diagrams
In CCT diagram longer time is
required compare to IT diagram for
Transformation to begin and no
bainite region is observed.

CCT Diagrams
725C

Temperature

Ps
Pf
5C/s
Ms

40C/s

140C/s

Mf

Martensite

10

102

103

104

105

Pearlite + Fine Pearlite Coarse Pearlite

Martensite

CCT Diagram of eutectoid steel