Annealing (metallurgy)

atoms and the dissolution of carbides within the steel.[3]

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat

treatment that alters the strength and sometimes chemical properties of a material to increase its ductility and
to make it more workable. It involves heating a material to above its glass transition temperature, maintaining
a suitable temperature, and then cooling. Annealing can
induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses,
rene the structure by making it homogeneous, and improve cold working properties.

Hardness decreases and ductility increases, because dislocations are eliminated and the metals crystal lattice
is altered. On heating to a specic temperature atoms
will migrate within the lattice and the adjusted grain can
change the mechanical properties.

1.1 Stages

In the cases of copper, steel, silver, and brass, this process is performed by heating the material (generally until
glowing) for a while and then slowly letting it cool to room
temperature in still air. Copper, silver[1] and brass can be
cooled slowly in air, or quickly by quenching in water, unlike ferrous metals, such as steel, which must be cooled
slowly to anneal. In this fashion, the metal is softened and
prepared for further worksuch as shaping, stamping, or
forming.

The three stages of the annealing process that proceed

as the temperature of the material is increased are: recovery, recrystallization, and grain growth. The rst
stage is recovery, and it results in softening of the metal
through removal of primarily linear defects called dislocations and the internal stresses they cause. Recovery occurs at the lower temperature stage of all annealing processes and before the appearance of new strainfree grains. The grain size and shape do not change.[4]
The second stage is recrystallization, where new strainfree grains nucleate and grow to replace those deformed
by internal stresses.[4] If annealing is allowed to continue
once recrystallization has completed, then grain growth
(the third stage) occurs. In grain growth, the micro structure starts to coarsen and may cause the metal to lose a
substantial part of its original strength. This can however
be regained with hardening.

Thermodynamics

Annealing occurs by the diusion of atoms within a solid

material, so that the material progresses towards its equilibrium state. Heat increases the rate of diusion by providing the energy needed to break bonds. The movement
of atoms has the eect of redistributing and eradicating
the dislocations in metals and (to a lesser extent) in ceramics. This alteration to existing dislocations allows a
metal object to deform more easily, increasing its ductility.

2 Controlled atmospheres

The high temperature of annealing may result in oxidation of the metals surface, resulting in scale. If scale
must be avoided, annealing is carried out in a special
atmosphere, such as with endothermic gas (a mixture of
carbon monoxide, hydrogen gas, and nitrogen gas). AnThe relief of internal stresses is a thermodynamically nealing is also done in forming gas, a mixture of hydrogen
spontaneous process; however, at room temperatures, it and nitrogen.
is a very slow process. The high temperatures at which
The magnetic properties of mu-metal (Espey cores) are
annealing occurs serve to accelerate this process.
introduced by annealing the alloy in a hydrogen atmoThe reaction that facilitates returning the cold-worked sphere.
metal to its stress-free state has many reaction pathways,
mostly involving the elimination of lattice vacancy gradients within the body of the metal. The creation of lattice
vacancies is governed by the Arrhenius equation, and the 3 Setup and equipment
migration/diusion of lattice vacancies are governed by
Ficks laws of diusion.[2] The decarburization mecha- Typically, large ovens are used for the annealing pronism can be described as three distinct events: the reac- cess. The inside of the oven is large enough to place the
tion at the steel surface, the interstitial diusion of carbon workpiece in a position to receive maximum exposure to
The amount of process-initiating Gibbs free energy in a
deformed metal is also reduced by the annealing process.
In practice and industry, this reduction of Gibbs free energy is termed stress relief.

5 SPECIALIZED CYCLES

the circulating heated air. For high volume process annealing, gas red conveyor furnaces are often used. For
large workpieces or high quantity parts, car-bottom furnaces are used so workers can easily move the parts in
and out. Once the annealing process is successfully completed, workpieces are sometimes left in the oven so the
parts cool in a controllable way. While some workpieces
are left in the oven to cool in a controlled fashion, other
materials and alloys are removed from the oven. Once
removed from the oven, the workpieces are often quickly
cooled o in a process known as quench hardening. Typical methods of quench hardening materials involve media
such as air, water, oil, or salt. Salt is used as a medium for
quenching usually in the form of brine (salt water). Brine
provides faster cooling rates than water. This is because
when an object is quenched in water air bubbles form on
the surface of the object reducing the surface area the
water is in contact with. The salt in the brine reduces the
formation of air bubbles on the objects surface, meaning
there is a larger surface area of the object in contact with
the water, providing faster cooling rates. Quench hardening is generally applicable to some ferrous alloys, but not
copper alloys.

Diusion annealing of semiconductors

In the semiconductor industry, silicon wafers are annealed, so that dopant atoms, usually boron, phosphorus
or arsenic, can diuse into substitutional positions in the
crystal lattice, resulting in drastic changes in the electrical
properties of the semiconducting material.

5
5.1

Specialized cycles
Normalization

Normalization is an annealing process applied to ferrous

alloys to give the material a uniform ne grained structure
and make it less brittle. It is used on steels of less than
0.4% carbon to transform austenite into ferrite, pearlite
and sorbite. It involves heating the steel to 20-50 Kelvin
above its upper critical point. It is soaked for a short
period at that temperature and then allowed to cool in
air. Smaller grains form that produce a tougher, more
ductile material. It eliminates columnar grains and dendritic segregation that sometimes occurs during casting.
Normalizing improves machinability of a component and
provides dimensional stability if subjected to further heat
treatment processes.

5.2 Process annealing

Process annealing, also called intermediate annealing,
subcritical annealing, or in-process annealing, is a heat
treatment cycle that restores some of the ductility to a
product during the process of cold working, so it can be
worked further without breaking further heat treatment
cycles.
The temperature range for process annealing ranges from
260 C (500 F) to 760 C (1400 F), depending on the
alloy in question.

5.3 Full anneal

Full annealing temperature ranges

A full anneal typically results in the second most ductile state a metal can assume for metal alloy. It creates a
new uniform microstructure with good dynamic properties. To perform a full anneal on steel for example, steel
is heated to 50C above the austenic temperature and
held for sucient time to allow the material to fully form
austenite or austenite-cementite grain structure. The material is then allowed to cool slowly so that the equilibrium
microstructure is obtained. In some cases this means the
material is allowed to air cool. In other cases the material
is allowed to furnace cool. The details of the process depend on the type of metal and the precise alloy involved.
In any case the result is a more ductile material but a lower
yield strength and a lower tensile strength. This process is
also called LP annealing for lamellar pearlite in the steel
industry as opposed to a process anneal, which does not
specify a microstructure and only has the goal of softening the material. Often the material to be machined is
annealed, and then subject to further heat treatment to
achieve the nal desired properties.

5.4 Short cycle anneal

Short cycle annealing is used for turning normal ferrite
into malleable ferrite. It consists of heating, cooling and
then heating again from 4 to 8 hours.

Resistive heating

Resistive heating can be used to eciently anneal copper

wire; the heating system employs a controlled electrical
short circuit. It can be advantageous because it does not
require a temperature-regulated furnace like other methods of annealing.
The process consists of two conductive pulleys (step pulleys), which the wire passes across after it is drawn.
The two pulleys have an electrical potential across them,
which causes the wire to form a short circuit. The Joule
eect causes the temperature of the wire to rise to approximately 400 C. This temperature is aected by the
rotational speed of the pulleys, the ambient temperature,
and the voltage applied. Where t is the temperature of
the wire, K is a constant, V is the voltage applied, r is the
number of rotations of the pulleys per minute, and t is
the ambient temperature:
t = ((KV )/(r))+t
The constant K depends on the diameter of the pulleys
and the resistivity of the copper.
Purely in terms of the temperature of the copper wire,
an increase in the speed of the wire through the pulley
system has the same eect as an increase in resistance.
Therefore, the speed of the wire can be varied quadratically as the voltage is applied.

See also
Annealing (glass)
Hollomon-Jae parameter
Low hydrogen annealing
Tempering (metallurgy)

References

[1] http://www.handyharmancanada.com/hbpm/silver/
silver.htm
[2] Van Vlack, L. H. (1985). Elements of Materials Science
and Engineering. Addison-Wesley. p. 134.
[3] Alvarenga HD, Van de Putte T, Van Steenberge N, Sietsma J, Terryn H (Apr 2009). Inuence of Carbide
Morphology and Microstructure on the Kinetics of Supercial Decarburization of C-Mn Steels. Metal Mater
Trans A. doi:10.1007/s11661-014-2600-y.
[4] Verhoeven, J.D. Fundamentals of Physical Metallurgy,
Wiley, New York, 1975, p. 326

9 Further reading
Thesis of Degree, Cable Manufacture and Tests
of General Use and Energy. - Jorge Luis Pedraz
(1994), UNI, Files, Peru.
Dynamic annealing of the Copper wire by using
a Controlled Short circuit. = Jorge Luis Pedraz
(1999), Peru: Lima, CONIMERA 1999, INTERCON 99,

10 External links
Annealing with induction: Ameritherm oers annealing overview and Application Notes
Annealing:efunda - engineering fundamentals
Full Annealing:Material Science
Annealing: Aluminum and Aircraft Metal Alloys

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