COOLING CURVE OF PURE IRON

i. α −IRON – Pure form of iron having BCC structure and magnetic in character
upto 768oC.
ii. γ −IRON – Pure form of iron having FCC structure and non-magnetic in
nature.
iii. δ−IRON – Pure form of iron having BCC structure and non-magnetic in
nature.

768oC – Curie point temperature line as magnetic transformation takes place at

this temperature.

IRON – IRON CARBIDE PHASE DIAGRAM

 INDIVIDUAL PHASES

1. α – Ferrite – Interstitial Solid Solution of Carbon in α – Iron.

2. γ – Austenite – Interstitial Solid Solution of Carbon in γ – Iron.
3. δ – Ferrite – Interstitial Solid Solution of Carbon in δ – Iron.
4. Cementite or Iron Carbide (Fe3C)
5. Liquid Fe-C solution

SOLUBILITY LIMIT OF CARBON IN DIFFERENT PHASE

1. α – IRON – 0.025% at 723oC

2. γ – IRON – 2.1% at 1147oC
3. δ – IRON – 0.1% AT 1492OC

Note – This variation in solubility is attributed to shape and size of interstitial

positions in BCC and FCC structures respectively.

INVARIANT REACTIONS

1. EUTECTOID REACTION
γ – Austenite 723oc, 0.8%C α – Ferrite + Fe3C (Pearlite)

2. EUTECTIC REACTION
723oc, 0.8%C
Liquid Fe – C γ – Austenite + Fe3C (Ledeburite)

3. PERITECTIC REACTION
δ – Ferrite + L 723oc, 0.8%C γ – Austenite

4. MONOTECTIC REACTION
723oc, 0.8%C
L L + γ – Austenite

HEAT TREATMENT OF STEELS

The heat treatment includes heating and cooling operations or the sequence of two or more such
operations applied to any material in order to modify its metallurgical structure and alter its
physical, mechanical and chemical properties. Usually it consists of heating the material to some
specific temperature, holding at this temperature for a definite period and cooling to room
temperature or below with a definite rate. Annealing, Normalizing, Hardening and Tempering are
the four widely used heat treatment processes.

Annealing
Annealing refers to a wide group of heat treatment processes and is performed primarily for
homogenization, recrystallization or relief of residual stress in typical cold worked or welded
components. Few important variants of annealing are full annealing, isothermal annealing,
spheroidise annealing, recrystallization annealing, and stress relief annealing.

Full annealing (conventional annealing)

Full annealing process consists of three steps. First step is heating the steel component to above A 3
(upper critical temperature for ferrite) temperature for hypoeutectoid steels and above A 1 (lower

critical temperature) temperature for hypereutectoid steels by 30-50 0C. The second step is holding
the steel component at this temperature for a definite holding (soaking) period of at least 20
minutes per cm of the thick section to assure equalization of temperature throughout the cross-
section of the component and complete austenization. Final step is to cool the hot steel component
to room temperature slowly in the furnace, which is also called as furnace cooling. The full
annealing is used to relieve the internal stresses induced due to cold working, welding, etc, to
reduce hardness and increase ductility, to refine the grain structure and to increase machinability.

Isothermal annealing
Isothermal annealing consists of four steps. The first step is heating the steel components similar as
in the case of full annealing. The second step is slightly fast cooling from the usual austenitizing
temperature to a constant temperature just below A1. The third step is to hold at this reduced
temperature for sufficient soaking period for the completion of transformation and the final step
involves cooling the steel component to room temperature in air. Isothermal annealing has distinct
advantages over full annealing which are given below.
1. Reduced annealing time.
2. More homogeneity in structure.
3. Improved machinability and surface finish.

Isothermal annealing is primarily used for medium carbon, high carbon and some of the alloy steels
to improve their machinability.

Spheroidise annealing
Spheroidise annealing produces microstructure consisting of the globules (spheroid) of cementite or
carbides in the matrix of ferrite. The following methods are used for spheroidise annealing
Holding at just below A 1
Holding the steel component at just below the lower critical temperature (A 1 ) transforms the pearlite
to globular cementite particles. But this process is very slow and requires more time for obtaining
spheroidised structure.
Thermal cycling around A 1
In this method, the thermal cycling in the narrow temperature range around A 1 transforms
cementite lamellae from pearlite to spheroidal. During heating above A 1, cementite or carbides try
to dissolve and during cooling they try to re-form. This repeated action spheroidises the carbide
particles. Spheroidised structures are softer than the fully annealed structures and have excellent
machinability. This heat treatment is utilized to high carbon and air hardened alloy steels to soften
them and to increase machinability.

Recrystallization annealing
Recrystallization annealing process consists of heating a steel component below A 1 temperature i.e.
at temperature between 6250C and 6750 C (recrystallization temperature range of steel), holding at
this temperature and subsequent cooling. This type of annealing is applied either before cold working
or as an intermediate operation to remove strain hardening between multi-step cold working
operations. In certain case, recrystallization annealing may also be applied as final heat treatment.
The cold worked ferrite recrystallizes and cementite tries to spheroidise during this annealing
process. Recrystallization annealing relieves the internal stresses in the cold worked steels and
weldments, and improves the ductility and softness of the steel.

Stress relief annealing

Stress relief annealing process consists of three steps. The first step is heating the cold worked steel
to a temperature between 5000C and 5500 C i.e. below its recrystallization temperature. The second
step involves holding the steel component at this temperature for 1-2 hours. The final step is to cool
the steel component to room temperature in air.
The stress relief annealing partly relieves the internal stress in cold worked steels without loss of
strength and hardness i.e. without change in the microstructure. It reduces the risk of distortion
while machining. Since only low carbon steels can be cold worked, the process is applicable to
hypoeutectoid steels containing less than 0.4% carbon. This annealing process is also used on
components to relieve internal stresses developed from rapid cooling and phase changes.

Normalizing
Normalizing process consists of three steps. The first step involves heating the steel component
above the A3 cm temperature for hypoeutectoid steels and above A(upper critical temperature for

cementite) temperature for hypereutectoid steels by 30 0C to 500C. The second step involves
holding the steel component long enough at this temperature for homogeneous austenization. The
final step involves cooling the hot steel component to room temperature in still air. Due to air
cooling, normalized components show slightly different structure and properties than annealed
components. The properties of normalized components are not much different from those of
annealed components. However, normalizing takes less time and is more convenient and
economical than annealing and hence is a more common heat treatment in industries. Normalizing
is used to relieve internal stresses induced by heat treating, welding, casting, forging, forming, or
machining. Normalizing also improves the ductility without reducing the hardness and strength.

Hardening
Different techniques to improve the hardness of the steels are conventional hardening,
martempering and austempering

Conventional hardening

Conventional hardening process consists of four steps. The first step involves heating the steel to
above A3 temperature for hypoeutectoid steels and above A 1 temperature for hypereutectoid
steels by 500C. The second step involves holding the steel components for sufficient socking time for
homogeneous austenization. The third step involves Quenching i.e. rapid cooling of hot steel
components at a rate exceeding the critical cooling rate of the steel to room temperature or below
room temperature. Rapid cooling rates are accomplished by immersing the components in a
quench bath that usually contains quench media in form of either water or oil, accompanied by
stirring mechanism. Austenite transforms to martensite. This martensite structure improves the
hardness.
The hardened steel is not readily suitable for engineering applications. It possesses following three
drawbacks.
1. Martensite obtained after hardening is extremely brittle and will result in failure of
engineering components by cracking.
2. Formation of martensite from austenite by quenching produces high internal stresses in the
hardened steel.
3. Structures obtained after hardening consists of martensite and retained austenite. Both
these phases are metastable and will change to stable phases with time which subsequently
results in change in dimensions and properties of the steel in service.
The final step involves tempering. Tempering is the process of heating martensitic steel at a
temperature below the eutectoid transformation temperature to make it softer and more ductile.
During quenching outer surface is cooled quicker than the center. In other words the
transformation of the austenite is proceeding at different rates. Hence there is a limit to the overall
size of the part in this hardening process.

Martempering (marquenching)
Martempering process overcomes the limitation of the conventional hardening process. This
process follows interrupted quenching operation. In other words, the cooling is stopped at a point
above the martensite transformation region to allow sufficient time for the center to cool to the
temperature as the surface. Further cooling is continued through the martensite region, followed
by the usual tempering. In this process, transformation of austenite to martensite takes place at the
same time throughout the structure of the metal part.

Austempering
This process is also used to overcome the limitation of the conventional hardening process. Here
the quench is interrupted at a higher temperature than for martempering to allow the metal at the
center of the part to reach the same temperature as the surface. By maintaining that temperature,
both the center and surface are allowed to transform to bainite and are then cooled to room
temperature. Austempering causes less distortion and cracking than that in the
case of martempering and avoids the tempering operation. Austempering also improves the impact
toughness and the ductility of the metal than that in the case of martempering and conventional
hardening.

Tempering
Tempering is achieved by heating hardened steel to a temperature below A 1, which is in the range
1000C to 6800C, hold the component at this temperature for a soaking period of 1 to 2 hours (can be
increased up to 4 hours for large sections and alloy steels), and subsequently cooling back to room
temperature. The tempering temperature is decided based on the type of steel.