HEAT TREATMENT

This study material is intended for the individuals who are involved in metal cutting
processes and heat treatment process. My goal in writing this study material is that
such an individual will be able to self-teach himself / herself the fundamentals of heat
treatment process by going through this study material and be able to work efficiently.

The target audience for this study material is machine operators and process operators
who wish to advance in their job or simply have a better understanding of heat treatment
process This study material includes topics like hardening , normalizing , annealing
,case hardening, etc.

Intentionally this study material has been made short and concise with the hope that the
reader will find it user-friendly and continue through to the end. The reader who does
complete this study will walk away with fair knowledge about heat treatment process.

_________________________ _________________________
Prepared by Approved by
K N Choubey
Group Head - Technical

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 1 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Sl. No. Topics Page #

01 Purpose of Heat treatment 03

02 Annealing 04

03 Normalizing 06

04 Hardening 07

05 Temering 07

06 Case hardening 08

07 Hardening HSS Tool 13

HEAT TREATMENT Heat treatment is a process involving controlled heating and

cooling of a metal or alloy in solid states, carried out to achieve change in condition and
properties.

Condition of a metal or alloy means metallurgical structure such as micro-meter, phase,

relived, stress, etc.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 2 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT
Properties which undergo change after heat treatment are: Ductility, Malleability, Tensile
strength, Hardness, Toughness, Magnetic, Electrical propertie, etc.

Classification of heat treatment process:

1. Annealing
(a) Stress relief annealing
(b) Process annealing or sub critical annealing
(c) Spheriodising annealing
(d) Full annealing

2. Normalizing
3. Hardening (By quenching)
4. Tempering
5. Mar tempering
6. Aus tempering
7. Mar aging
8. Case Hardening

OBJECTIVE OF HEAT TREATMENT

Remove stresses induced by cold working or to remove stresses set up by

non-uniform cooling of heat metal objects.

Refine grain structure of hot worked steel which may have developed
coarse grain size.

Secure the proper grain structure.

Decrease hardness and increase ductility.

Increase hardness to increase surface wear resistance.

Increase toughness, that is to produce a steel with good tensile strength and
good ductility enabling it to withstand high impact.

Improve machinability.

Improve cutting properties of tool steel.

Improve electrical and magnetic properties of steel.

Principal of Heat Treatment

Some metals and alloys undergo change in phase or microstructure upon heating in solid
state which can be reversible or non-reversible or non-reversible. During controlled
heating and cooling cycle of heat treatment this change is brought about in order to
obtain desired microstructure and physical properties.
For example, in case of steel, eutectoid reaction in Iron-Carbon diagram is guiding
principle for heat treatment. Most of the heat-treatment cycles are based on
transformation or decomposition of austenite (Iron)
Heat treatment is effective for certain alloys only because it depends upon solid solution.
Example: Aluminum- Magnesium alloys are non-heat-treatable.

Stages of Heat Treatment Process:

1. Heating a metal or alloy to a definite temperature to allow change in phase.

2. Soaking and holding- to attain homogenous temperature in the metal/ alloy
and to give sufficient time to complete transformation to occur.
3. Cooling the job at controlled rate. For example (a) Slow cooling of steel
gives pearlite; (b) Fast quenching gives martensite.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 3 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT
Annealing
Annealing primarily is a process of heating a metal/ alloy which is in distorted structural
state, to a temperature which will remove the instability or distortion and then cooling it
slowly so that at room temperature the structure is strain free and stable.

Purpose:
a) Inducing a completely stable structure.
b) Refining and homogenizing structure.
c) Reducing hardness
d) Improving machinability
e) Improving cold working characteristics for facilitating further cold-working.
f) Producing desired micro-structure.
g) Removing mechanical, physical, electrical and magnetic properties.

Stress Relieving
Stress reliving annealing relives (essentially eliminates) stresses produced by casting,
quenching, machining, cold working, welding, etc. Thermal stress reliving requires
heating the casting to a temperature at which relaxation of the elastic (residual) stress is
brought about by plastic deformation corresponding to the elastic strain.
Stress reliving does not affect the metallurgical structures of the castings and is
essentially one of process of the creep. The temperature required for stress relief of a
casting varies from 0.3 M P (metal point) to 0.4 M P.

Process Annealing

This is usually sub-critical annealing applied generally to remove the effect of colds work
as in sheet metal and wire drawing industries.
Ferrous alloys are heated to a temperature close to, but below the lower transformation
limit (550-650 C) and are held at that temperature and usually cooled in air to soften the
alloy for further cold working as in wire- drawing.

HEAT TREATING TEMPERATURE FOR CARBON STEELS

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 4 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 5 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Spheroidise Annealing

This type of annealing is applied to high carbon steel for obtaining spheroidal or globular
cementite in pearlite instead of usual lamellar form.
This Operation

Improve machinability

Facilities subsequent cold working operation.

Prevents cracking of steel during cold forming operation.

The speroidising of cemenlite in pearlite is obtained by following methods:

1. Heating the steel and prolonged holding at temperature just below lower critical
line (Between 650 to 750 degrees). Due to prolonged heating no phase change
occurs but the surface tension turns the lamellar cemetite into globular form.
2. Heating and cooling steel, alternately between temperature that are just above
and below the lower critical line.
3. Heating to a temperature above the lower critical line i.e. between 7300 to 7700 C
with subsequent holding at this temperature followed by slow cooling at a rate of
250 to 300 Celsius per hour to 6000 C

Full Annealing
This implies annealing a ferrous alloy by heating to austenitizing temperature and then
cooling slowly in the furnaces itself. This involves three steps.
Heat the job at suitable rate to austenitizing temperature.
Holding it at that temperature for sufficient time for complete it at that temperature for
sufficient time for complete soaking and transformation to austenite.
Cooling very slowly in the furnace itself for slow transformation of austenite to ferrite and
pearlite.
As very slow cooling is involved, full annealing comes close to “Iron- Carbon diagram”.

Full Annealing
Refines grain structure.
Removes residual strain.
Improves machine ability.
Improves magnetic permeability and electrical properties.

Normalizing
This process consists of heating steels to about 400-500 C above the upper critical
temperature (A3 & Acm line), holding it for shorter duration and cooling in air to room
temperature.

Normalizing
• Produce uniform microstructure.
• Refines grain size of steel which is heavily distorted due to hot or cold working.
• Increase toughness.
• Reduces internal stress.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 6 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

HARDENING AND QUENCHING

Hardening of steel is induced by heating it to temperature about 30-50 C above A line

followed by rapid cooling or quenching in suitable medium such as water, brine, salt bath
etc.
The degree of hardness induced is based upon the amount of trootstite, bainite or
marten site generated due to quenching as per T T T diagram.
Alloy elements such as Ni, Cr, Mn, etc. When added increase depth of hardness. This is
due to shift of nose of the T T T diagram towards right side. Thus the alloy steel can be
hardened uch less drasite quenching then that needed in plain carbon steel.

Effect of Various Quenching Media:

Quenching Rate of Cooling Structure Hardness UTS MN/ M2

Media Produced Obtained RC
Water Very fast Martensite 65 1725
Oil Fast Very fine pearlite 35 1100
Air Medium Fine Pearlite 25 865
Furnace Very slow 15 520
Cooling Coarse Pearlite

Tempering
Quench hardening as explained previously produces structure martensite and retained
austenite. This martensite is very hard, brittle and highly stressed. This may result in
cracking and distortion of the article. Hence steel in this state is not advisable for use
unless the requirement is extreme hardness. Secondly, the retained austenite is an
unstable phase, as it changes with time the dimensional changes occur, for example dies
may alter in dimension to the extent of 0.0125 mm.
Therefore, ‘tempering’ is carried out on quench hardened steel for bringing back the
equilibrium by heating it to a temperature below the lower critical temperature (A1).
Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 7 of 20
 HEAT TREATMENT

Step in Tempering:

1. Heating the hardened steel job below lower critical temperature.

2. Holding it at that temperature for 3-5 minutes for each mm. of thickness or
diameter.
3. Cooling the steel in water, oil or air either rapidly or slowly expect in case of steels
susceptible to temper brittleness.

Purpose of tempering:

 Relive residual stresses

 Improve ductility
 Improve toughness
 Reduce hardness
 Increase percentage elongation.

CASE HARDENING
Numerous industrial applications such as cams, gear, etc. require a very hard wear
resistant surface or case whereas the core must be relatively soft, tough and shock
resistant. No steel posses this property of hard case and tough core. This combination of
properties can be obtained applying suitable process to a job for obtaining hard surface.
These processes as known as case hardening.

There are six type of surface hardening.

a) Carburizing
b) Nit riding
c) Cyaniding
d) Carbonizing
e) Flame Hardening
f) Induction Hardening

Carburizing
This is also known as ‘Cementation’. In this method carbon atoms are made to diffuse
into the skin of the job for making it harder. This is essentially carried out on low carbon
steels.

Process
Low carbon steel (About 0.2 % C or lower) is heated to 8700 C to 9250 C for several
hours in contact with solid, gaseous or liquid medium containing free carbon.
The high carbon steel surface is hardened by quenching from A1 temperature.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 8 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Characteristic
Case depth is about 1.27 mm.
After heat treatment Hardness up to RC 65.
Negligible change in dimension.
Distortion may occur during heat treatment.

Pack Carburizing
In this method the medium is a mixture of wood or bone charcoal and sodium carbonate
or barium carbonate. The jobs to be carburized are packed in cast iron boxes along with
the carburizing material so that a space of approximately 50 mm exists between 9000 to
9500 C, and then kept at that temperature upto five hours depending upon the case
depth desired. When carburizing is complete the jobs are quenched or cooled slowly in
the boxes, depending upon the nature of the heat treatment to be applied.

Gas Carburizing: In this process the carbonizing medium is mixture of gases having
approximate composition as under:
CO 20%
H2 40%
N2 40% and some propane, butane or methane.
The components are heated in the atmosphere of the above mentioned gases at about
9000 C for three or four hours which will deposit carbon atoms at the surface of the
components. The endothermic atmosphere is applied both as source of carbon from CO
and a carrier gas to dilute hydrocarbon gas such as methane ( or propane) which is
used both as a source of carbon and to control surface chemical reactions.
The depths of case vary from 0.25 mm to 1.0 mm.

Liquid Carburizing: The media is salt bath containing 50% sodium cyanide with sodium
carbonate upto 40% and varying amounts of sodium or barium chloride.
Reaction: At 8700 to 9500 C
2NaCN + 2O2 Na2CO3 + 2N + CO
This CO dissociates at the surface of the job giving rise to free carbon atom similar to
those in pack carburizing.

Nitriding: This process accompanies the introduction of nitrogen atoms into the surface
of certain types of steel such as steel containing Al and Cr by heating it and holding at a
suitable in partially dissociated ammonia or other suitable medium.
As in this process the surface hardening is obtained by formation of nitrides, there is no
need to go for further heat treatment.

Characteristic:
 Case depth upto 0.381 mm.
 Extreme hardness (Vickers 1100)
 Dimensional change from 0.025 to 0.050 mm.
 Case has high corrosion resistance.
 Low distortion in shape.
 No machining required.
 Suitable for complex shapes.
 Relatively costlier process.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 9 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Cyaniding: In this process nascent hydrogen and nitrogen atoms are simultaneously
introduced into the surface of the low carbon steel by heating it to suitable temperature
and holding it in contact with molten cyanide salt to form a thin skin which is hardened
subsequently.

Process: Low carbon steel is heated to 8000 to 8700 C in molten sodium cyanide bath for
period between 30 min to 3 hours followed by quenching in oil bath or water.

Bath Composition:
NaCN 30%
Na2CO3 40%
NaCl 30%

Characteristic:

 Case depth upto 0.25 mm.

 Hardness about Rc 65.
 Negligible dimensional change.
 Distortion may occur during heat treatment.

Carbonitriding: This implies introducing carbon and nitrogen into a solid ferrous alloy
by holding above Ac temperature in an atmosphere to cause both carbon and nitrogen to
be absorbed by the surface of steel at the carbonitriding temperature. Low carbon steel
is heated and kept at a temperature from 6500 to 8850 C for several hours in gaseous
atmosphere of propane or natural gas with ammonia.

Nitrogen released by dissociation of ammonia increase the harden ability of steel by oil
quenching.

Flame hardening: This involves heating of heat treatable steel to austenitic temperature
range and quenching by water immediately. Generally oxyacetylene flame is used for
heating.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 10 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 11 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 12 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Characteristic:
 Depth of hardening 3 to 6 mm.
 Case thickness can be easily controlled by speed of flame quenching set-up.
 Very economic.
 No poisonous gases or chemicals used.
 Large parts can be applied on finished.
 This technique can be applied on finished surfaces also as there is no scaling.
 Overheating can damage the Job.

Induction Hardening: This is similar to flame hardening except the heating is done by
induction coil instead of flames.
The shape and size of the induction coil depends on application as shown in the diagram
in the previous page.
The frequency of current varies from 1000 to 500000 Hz higher frequency results in
higher temperature attained but lower case depth.

Characteristic:

 Very fast process

 Practically there is no scaling and distortion.
 Automation of the process is possible to great excellent.
 Very high equipment cost; cost effective for mass production only.
 Inconvenient for irregular shaped jobs.

HEAT TREATMENT OF TOOL STEELS

With the progress of civilization the human race learnt to use tools for agriculture and to
protect themselves from the other creatures. In the Stone Age they made tools from
stones and they learnt to use metals, finally they found iron and steels.
Today the versatility of steel is understood is it depends on its different properties
imparted through suitable alloying and appropriate heat treatment measures.

Tools steels are categorized into four grades and these are:
1. Carbon tool steels.
2. Cold work alloy tool steels.
3. Hot work tool steels.
4. High speed steels.

All these categories of tool steels must have high hardness and wear resistance. Apart
from these two, important properties they should have:
a) Resistance to dynamic stresses for (1).
b) Low tendency to distortion and dimensional change during hardening operations
for all categories.
c) Resistance to pressure and impact (2).
d) Resistance to thermal crackness, erosion, corrosion and oxidation for (3).
e) Hot wear resistance, red hardness, hot yield strength, good thermal conductivity
and resistance to adhesion for (3) and (4).

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 13 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

To impart these varieties of properties in the different types of tools the important
parameters are:
 Selection of proper grade of tool steel with regard to chemistry, steel
making process cleanliness of the steel and hot working.
 It is also very important that components/ tools should have homogenous
and fine grained structures free from carbide net work and hooky carbides.
 Good heat treatment facilities with skilled operators having good
knowledge of process controls and quality control systems.

The tools are made by hot working (ie. Forging or rolling) followed by softening. Final
shape is given by machining and grinding and than hardened tempered.
The Chronological steps are as follows:
1. Annealing
2. Stress relieving
3. Hardening
4. Tempering

Annealing:
This treatment is done to improve machinability, cold formability, to restore ductility, to
reduce or eliminate structural non-homogeneity to refine the grain size, to relieve internal
stresses and most important to prepare the structure of the tool steels anneable to
hardening.
Different annealing cycles are existing but spheroidise annealing is most suited for all
grades of steels. In this process steel is heated to a temperature just above or slightly
below A, critical temperature for a prolonged time followed by a slow cooling. Here
carbides of lamellar pearlite or secondary eutectite are spheroidised.

Stress Relieving:
During machining or grinding of tools, certain stresses are induced in the tools. The
generated internal stresses can cause either cracking during the subsequent hardening
treatment or result in instability of size and shape. This is mainly due to the change
induced by machining in the equilibrium stress pattern.

The stress relieving operation is carried out by heating the tools below Ac, temperature.
Heat decreases the yield strength of the material. When it is warm and plastic the
stresses are relieved, at temperature above 6000 C tool steels almost entirely cease to
be elastic and becomes ductile. For this reasons, the internal stresses developed in the
steel at such temperature are gradually relieved. At temperature above 6000 C tool steels
almost entirely ceases to be elastic and becomes ductile. For this reasons, the internal

stresses developed in the steel at such temperature are gradually relieved as a result of
local plastic deformations causes by them. The remaining stresses become negligible.
The stress relieving temperature range for tool steels is 6500 to 7000 C.
After heating to the desired temperature the tools are held at the temperature for a
considerable time to attain a uniform temperature through out the section or charge. It is
then slowly cooled in the furnace to 3000 C and subsequently cooled in air. Care must be
taken to ensure slow and uniform cooling to avoid the formation of any internal stresses.
The preferable cooling rate in the furnace should be 150 C per hour.
Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 14 of 20
 HEAT TREATMENT

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 15 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Hardening:
Hardening is a heat treatment operation necessary to impart hardness with desired
micro-structural changes to the tools. The treatment consists of heating the steel tools to
austenitizing temperature and holding at this temperature for dissolution of carbides in
the ‫ץ‬-phase followed by quenching in a suitable media with a critical cooling rate.
At this stage the trapped carbon causes a shift in atoms to form a body centered
tetragonal structure. The shift of atoms and the trapped carbon creates a stressed a
lattice structure which is called MARTENSITE. It is hard and brittle. The hardness finally
achieved depends on how much carbon was available, how much of this was dissolved,
the temperature adopted and the rate of cooling. It is subsequently tempered to reduce
the induced quenching stresses causes by the formation of martensite.

TEMPERING
Hardened tool steel acquires the structure of tetragonal martensite and a certain amount
of retained austenite. In this condition they are hard, brittle, highly stressed and liable to
develop quench cracks. To overcome this, the hardened steel should have a potential
tendency to pass into a stable condition. But this stable state or equilibrium cannot be
achieved at room temperature because of the low mobility of atoms increases due to
accelerated diffusion rate and these results in structural changes of the hardened steel to
give rise to a stable state. Thus the tempering process, after hardening makes the steel
more useful by providing a stable state.

The tools should be tempered immediately before they reach the room temperature
rather while they are warm. This to avoid distortion and cracks.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 16 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

In case of plain carbon tool steels the tempering is done between 1500 to 3000 C.

Cold-worked alloy tool steels if treated in salt bath should be cleaned thoroughly before
tempering to avoid corrosion. The choice of tempering temperature is largely a matter of
experience, however the ranges is 1000 – 3000 C. Heating to tempering temperature
should be below and uniform to avoid cracking. Normal soaking time is 2 hours and then
the job is air cooled.

Hot work tool steels are tempered when they are at 500 - 600 C in the quenching media.
Considering the varying sensitivity to heat checking the hardness is kept in the range of
37 to 48 Rc. During tempering a holding at 2000 to 2500 C is preferred to avoid thermal
shock and first tempering done at 5000 C for 2 to 3 hours and then cooled to room
temperature so that the retained austenite is transformed to martensite and the
precipitation of carbides from the martensite is effected. After the first tempering the
hardness is checked and recorded.

If the first tempering gives the satisfactory hardness, the second tempering temperature
is chosen from the graph to achieve the required hardness. The procedure will be the
same as first tempering.

Often a third tempering is done at a temperature marginally lower than that of second
tempering which increases the tool life.

In order to enhance the life of the jobs further surface treatment are done. The surface
treatments are diffusion type e.g. Nitriding, Oxidation, Tufftriding or sursulf.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 17 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 18 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

The structure of high speed steel in the as hardened condition consists of 70-80 %
tetragonal martensite, 15 to 30 % highly alloyed untransformed austenite and
undissolved Mg, C, & MC carbide (9-12%). During heating there is a slight drop in the
hardness at about 3200 C due to tetragonal form changes to cubic with the rejection of
carbon as epsilon carbide. Epsilon carbide disappears with the appearance of cementite
and precipitation of alloyed carbides of tungsten or Molybdenum in addition vanadium
carbide may be formed. When the secondary carbide precipitate the retained austenite is
deprived of its alloying elements and its alloying content drops. When the high speed
steel cools after tempering, the retained austenite which now has a lower transformation
and transforms partially into martensite. Due to this phenomenon repeated tempering (3
tempering minimum) is essential to complete the formation of tempered martensite.

During the subsequent tempering the percentage of carbon in the martensite decreases
as a result of which the strength and toughness of the steel increases to some extent.
Moreover the thermal conductivity is also improved. To attain the maximum secondary
hardness molybdenum steels (M- series) should be tempered at a temperature range of
5400 to 5600 C and tungsten steels (T-series) at 5600 to 5700 C.

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 19 of 20

 HEAT TREATMENT

QUSETIONS :

Q.1. What are the purposes of heat treatment ?

Q.2. What re the objective of annealing ? How is it carried out ?
Q.3. What is hardening and tempering process ?
Q.4. How will you heat treat a cutting tool made of H.S.S,. ?

Ref . 1. Production Technology By. R.B.Gupta

2. Production Technology By Gupta and Kaushik

**********

Prepared by : B. N. Prasad Page 20 of 20