Heat Treatment : The Best Process For Metals
Hardening: First heated and then rapidly cooled in oil or water.
Tempering: soak at a lower temperature with reconstitutes the mechanical properties and relieves stress of the metal.
The process and temperature varies on the basis of composition of metals, component size and properties.
Process can be performed in open furnace or enclosed chambers.
Two types of process: martempering (more temperature soak; suitable for a selected few alloys) and austermpering (thick / thin sections; high temperature quench usually in molten salt)
Process: renders hardness toughness and strength
Reduce harness of the metal to suit manufacturing needs.
Carefully mould the microscopic structure of the metal and increases the ductility, improves mechanicality, minimizes residual stress etc.
Materials annealed: steel stainless steel non ferrous alloys
Process: subjected to high temperature then slowly cooled to room temperature. (variation in temperature depending upon the metals to be annealed.)
Homogenization is performed to both ferrous and non ferrous metals and require optimum heat that will enable to break the molecular structure of the material.
The following are some of the advantages of annealing.
• It softens the steel
• It enhances and improves the mach inability of steel
• It increases the ductility of steel
• It enhances the toughness of steel
• It improves the homogeneity in steel
• The grain size of the steel is refined a lot by annealing
• It prepares the steel for further heat treatment
