MATE 1104
Cold Working / Work Hardening
Work hardening involves plastic deforming the metal below its recrystallization temperature (as
opposed to hot working)
Plastic deformation creates new dislocations
pre-existing dislocations move
These become entangled resulting in improved strength and increase in hardness
This process can be reversed by a heat treatment called recrystallization and occurs in 3
steps:
1. Recovery
2. recrystallization
3. grain growth
Plastic Deformation
When a material is stressed beyond its elastic limit, Plastic or permanent deformation takes
place
The plastic deformation occurs by 2 mechanisms and can be a combination of both:
1. Slip
o A plane of atoms slips over another plane of atoms and assumes a new site within the
space lattice
o Slip occurs in directions in which the atoms are most closely packed since this requires
the least amount of energy
o Most often involves the movement of dislocations
o Multiple steps with little change in the lattice orientation – steps are easily removed by
polishing (not visible microscopically)
1
2. Twinning
o The atoms in a crystal lattice are doubled into themselves causing a twinned or banded
region to be present
o Results in a different lattice orientation and can be seen microscopically
o Atoms only move a fractional amount
o A movement of planes of atoms in the lattice parallel to a specific twinning plane so the
lattice is divided into two symmetrically parts which are oriented differently
To strengthen metal we must find ways impede (delay/prevent) the movement of atoms by
twinning, slip, or dislocation movement.
2
When a metallic material is deformed, the stress required to cause slip and/or twinning
increases with strain
Work hardening is the increase of dislocation density within a structure
Crystal imperfections and dislocations become entangled and pinned causing an
increase in strength & hardness but also a corresponding decreasing in ductility
Plastically deformed (strain hardened) metal contains highly stressed, elongated grains
oriented I the direction of cold working
The difference in the mechanical properties with regard to the rolling or deformation
direction is known as anisotropy
Recovery, Recrystallization and Grain Growth
The change in the mechanical properties that occur as a result of plastic deformation can be
reversed by heated
Recovery occurs at temperatures recrystallization temperature
The recrystallization temperature is the lowest temperature at which stress-free
equiaxed grains appear in the microstructure of the cold worked material
Recrystallization temperature is dependent on:
o Original grain size before deformation
o Amount of cold work (plastic deformation) performed
o Temperature at which the cold work occurred – the lower the deformation
temperature, the lower the recrystallization temperature.
Recovery consists of the increased movement and annihilation of point defects
and the redistribution of the dislocation within the deformed
microstructure
The redistribution of the dislocations which previously pinned the structure results in a
Reduction in the internal stress of the grains
As heating of the grains continues, the high stressed, plastically deformed grains grow
into stress-free , equiaxed grains
When the increased temperature is held for a period of time , the
fine grains begin to grow into larger equiaxed grains
Larger grains will have a large effect on the mechanical properties of the metal,
particularly lower strength and hardness, increased ductility
3
Temperature →
