EFFECT OF NORMALIZING ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND

HARDNESS OF MILDSTEEL

Augmented Experiment Report

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY In
(DEPARTMENT OF MECHNICALENGINEERING)

Submitted
By
S.NAVEEN KUMAR
18341A03B9

Under the esteemed guidance of

Dr. M. Lakshmi Prasad
Asst. professor
DEPARTMENT OF BS&H
GMRIT

Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

GMR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
(An Autonomous institute, affiliated to J.N.T.University Kakinada)
NAAC “A” Graded, NBA Accredited, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Institution
G.M.R. Nagar, Rajam-532127, A.P
2019-20
 (An Autonomous institute, affiliated to J.N.T. University Kakinada)
NAAC “A” Graded, NBA Accredited, ISO 9001:2008CertifiedInstitution
G.M.R. Nagar, Rajam-532127,

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mini Project report titled “EFFECT OF NORMALIZING ON

THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND HARDNESS OF MILDSTEEL” submitted by
S.NAVEEN KUMAR bearing roll no 18341A03B9 has been carried out in
rd
partial fulfillment completion of the course “METALLURGY LAB” in B.Tech 3
Semester is a record of bonafide work carried out under the guidance and
supervision of Dr.M.Lakshmi Prasad

Signature of the Supervisor Signature of the Head of Department

Dr. M. Lakshmi Prasad Dr. V. RAMBABU
Assistant Professor BS&H Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering
GMRIT, Rajam GMRIT, Rajam
ABSTRACT:

Main Objective of this experiment is to Study the Effect

on the Hardness of mild carbon steel after and before Heat
Treatment Processes Such As Annealing, Normalizing, and
Hardening at 8000C.

EFFECT OF NORMALIZING ON THE

MICROSTRUCTURE AND HARDNESS OF MILDSTEEL

1. Aim of the Project

2. Apparatus
3. Introduction
4. Theory
5. Procedure
6. Microstructure Details given mild steel
7. Table of Readings
8. Conclusion
9. Advantages of Normalizing
10. Applications
11. Results
EFFECT OF NORMALIZING ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND
HARDNESS OF MILDSTEEL

1 .AIM: To determine the effect of normalizing on the microstructure and hardness

of mild steel.

2. APPARATUS:
1. Sample (MILD STEEL)
2. Muffle furnace
3. Rockwell hardness test machine
4. 1200 diamond cone indenter
5. Metallurgical microscope

3. INTRODUCTION:

The main aim of this experiment is to increase hardness by heat treatment process.
For this the given sample(mild steel) is heated to the austenitization temperature and
then cooled at faster rate to avoid FERRITE and PEARLITE transformation and
allow the formation of MARTENSITE and also other phases like BAINITE to obtain
maximum hardness and strength. And the type of quenching also decided hardness
of the specimen.

4.THEORY:
To change the mechanical properties of a metal (mild steel) the heat treatment
process is used.
Heat treatment can be defined as a metallurgical process that involves heating or
cooling a metal or alloy in the solid state, in a way that will produce desired
properties.
The following changes occur during heat treatment:
1. Homogenize the grain size
2.Reduce the defects
3.To maintain chemical Homogeneity.
4.To reduce deformation stresses.
Heat treatment involves different stages:
 Heating
 Soaking
 Cooling

 Heating: It is a process in which a material is kept inside a furnace and heated

until a temperature where the phase transformation occurs.
 Soaking: It is the process in which the sample is left for some time in order
to generate the heat uniformly all over the specimen.
 Cooling: It is the very crucial stage of the heat treatment. Based on the rate of
cooling it is classified into various types.

Water cooling (quenching):

Heating and soaking of mild steel followed by water cooling is called
QUENCHING or HARDENING.
 High tensile strength and hardness can be achieved by this process. Rapid
cooling means cooling rate is equal to more than the upper critical cooling
rate.
 Rapid cooling results in the transformation of AUSTENTITE at considerably
low temperature product called MARTENSITE which is a hard
microconstituent of mild steel.

Process of formation of martensite:

5. PROCEDURE:
(5.1)A specimen is made of required dimensions from the mild steel sample.
(5.2)The unheated specimen is looked under the metallurgical microscope in order
look the microstructure.
(5.3)The unheated specimen is kept under the Rockwell hardness test machine, in
order to calculate the hardness.
(5.4)A minor load of 10 kg is applied on the sample by rotating the capstone wheel,
now the wheel is further rotated in order to force the specimen to the indenter.
(5.5)Now a major load of 150 kg is applied in the specimen, as soon as the dial comes
to rest rescale the lever direction which releases the major load, the pointer will
rotate in the reverse direction and the Rockwell hardness number is read on the
appropriate scale dial directly.
(5.6)The hardness is determined at various points on the specimen and the readings
are noted down.
(5.7)The specimen is kept inside a furnace and heated to a temperature of 800
degrees for a required length of time.
(5.8)When uniform temperature is obtained through the cross section of the
specimen, it is removed from the furnace.
(5.9)After removing from the furnace it is allowed to be cooled under air, now the
heated specimen is grinded and viewed under the metallurgical microscope in order
to see the microstructure of the heated specimen.
(5.10)Now the same sample is kept under the Rockwell hardness test machine and
the hardness is determined at various points by using the same process used to
unheated specimen.
(5.11)Tabulate the readings of heated and unheated specimens separately.
 (6.1)MICROSTRUCTURE DETAILS: (BEFORE HEATING)

MAGNIFICATION 100X MAGNIFICATION 150X

SPECIMEN SPECIMEN

COMPOSITION COMPOSITION

MICRISTRUCTURE MICRISTRUCTURE
DETAILS DETAILS

HEAT TREATMENT HEAT TREATMENT

(IF ANY) (IF ANY)

ETCHANT ETCHANT

ETCHANT TIME ETCHANT TIME

 (6.2) MICROSTRUCTURE DETAILS: (AFTER HEATING)

MAGNIFICATION 100X MAGNIFICATION 150X

SPECIMEN SPECIMEN

COMPOSITION COMPOSITION

MICRISTRUCTURE MICRISTRUCTURE
DETAILS DETAILS

HEAT TREATMENT HEAT TREATMENT

(IF ANY) (IF ANY)

ETCHANT ETCHANT

ETCHANT TIME ETCHANT TIME

 (7)TABLE OF READINGS: BEFORE HEATING

ROCKWELL ROCKWELL
HARDNESS HARDNESS
S.NO SPECIMEN INDENTOR LOAD IN SCALE NUMBER NUMBER
KGF (BEFORE (AFTER
HEATING) HEATING)

1 MILD STEEL DIAMOND 150 C 58

SHAPED

DIAMOND
2 MILD STEEL SHAPED 150 C 63

3 MILD STEEL DIAMOND 150 C 53

SHAPED

4 MILD STEEL DIAMOND 150 C 52

SHAPED

5 MILD STEEL DIAMOND

SHAPED 150 C 67
8. CONCLUSIONS:
Initially there is a nonhomogeneous carbon distribution in the unheated specimen.
After the heating and normalizing the carbon is said to be distributed all over the specimen.
After heating and normalizing the hardness is said to remain constant over a range.
The chemical homogeneity is obtained

9. ADVANTAGES:
(9.1)Grain growth is limited by the relatively high cooling rate therefor the strength and hardness
of a normalized steel are better than in an annealed steel.
For example, a normalized 0.4% c steel will have a tensile strength of 580 MPa compared to an
annealed steel of 5
10 MPa.
(9.2)Its ductility will be 27% compared to 30%, and hardness will be 165 BHN compared to 145
BHN.
(9.3)That is the normalized steel will be stronger, and harder, but slightly less ductile than the
annealed steel.
(9.4)Quality of surface after machining of normalized part is also better than in an annealed part.

10. APPLICATIONS:
Due to its high toughness it is used in
Wheels
Crank
Gears

11. RESULT: The microstructure details and the hardness number of the given mild steel
sample is determined before heating and after heating in order to see the effect of normalizing.