Heat-Treating Operation

Heat treatment - An operation, or combination of operations, involving the heating and cooling of a metal or an alloy in
the solid state.
Note: This is for the purpose of obtaining certain desirable conditions or properties. Heating and cooling for the
sole purpose of mechanical working are excluded from the meaning of this definition.
Quenching - rapid cooling by immersion
Note: Immersion may be in liquids, gases or solids.
Hardening- Heating and quenching certain iron-base alloys from a temperature either within or above the critical
temperature range.
Annealing- A heating and cooling operation of a material in the solid state.
Note A: annealing usually implies relatively slow cooling.
Note B: Annealing is a comprehensive term. The purpose of such heat treatment:
a. To remove gases
b. To remove stresses
c. To induce softness
d. To alter ductility; toughness; electrical, magnetic or other physical properties
e. To refine crystalline structure
In annealing, the temperature of the operation and the rate of cooling depend upon the material being heat- treated and the
purpose of the treatment.
Certain specific heat-treatments coming under the comprehensive term annealing are:
Full annealing- Heating iron-base alloys above the critical temperature range, holding above the range for a proper time,
followed by slow cooling through the range.
Normalizing- heating iron-base alloys above the critical temperature range followed by cooling to below that range in still
air at ordinary temperature.
Tempering (also termed drawing) Reheating , after hardening , to some temperature range followed by any desired rate of
cooling.
Carburizing(cementation)- Adding carbon to iron-base alloys by heating the metal below its melting point in contact with
carbonaceous material.
Casehardening- carburizing and subsequent hardening by suitable heat treatment, all or part of the surface portions of a
piece of iron-base alloy.
Case- That portion of a carburize iron-base alloy article in which the carbon content has been substantially increased.
Core- That portion of a carburize iron-base alloy article in which the carbon content has not been substantially increased.
Cyaniding- Surface hardening of an iron-base alloy article or portion of it by heating at a single suitable temperature in
contact with a cyanide salt, followed by quenching .
Ferrite- The maximum solubility of carbon in alpha iron.
Delta solid solution- the maximum solubility of carbon in delta iron.
Austenite- The maximum solubility of carbon in gamma iron.
Eutectoid- An Intimate mechanical mixture of two or more phases having a definite composition and a definite temperature
of transformation within the solid state.
Pearlite- Under white light, it bears some similarity to mother-of-pear.(lamellar structure)
Hypoeutectoid steels- Steels that contain less than 0.83 percent carbon.
Eutectoid steels- Steels that contain 0.83 percent carbon.
Hypereutectoid- Steels that contain more than 0.83 percent carbon.
Chauffage- French meaning heating
Reffroidissement- The critical points upon cooling are denoted by the symbol Ar. The letter r denotes cooling, taken from
the French Reffroidissement.
Martensite- If the steel is cooled in water, the rate is very much greater. With very rapid cooling, the transformation occurs
at low temperature and resulting structure is known as martensite.
Isothermal transformation- Is made by instantaneously cooling a small sample of the steel from the austenitic state to a
particular-subcritical temperature.
Hardenability- The ability of a steel to be hardened through to its center in large sections.
Martempering another treatment that eliminates the necessity of tempering.
Nitriding- Is another method of casehardening involving diffusion.
Carbonitriding- Steels may be carburized and nitride simultaneously by the process.
Flame hardening- Is a process of producing a hard surface in steel having a sufficiently high carbon content to respond to
hardening by a rapid cooling of the surface.
Induction hardening- Accomplishes the same purpose as flame hardening, but in this process the steel surface to be
hardened is surrounded by a coil attached to a high frequency alternating current source.
Temper carbon- the nodules of graphite.
Grphite carbon- Is the form of flakes