Coarse-grain annealing of steel
The aim of coarse grain annealing is to improve machinability!
In general a coarse-grained steel microstructure is undesirable due to the relatively low toughness and strength values. The only advantage of a...
Soft annealing of steel
The aim of soft annealing is to improve formability and machinability!
Not every material has to be designed to withstand high mechanical forces. With a curved sheet metal with milled out slots,...
Nitriding of steel (surface hardening)
Nitriding is not based on the formation of martensite but on the formation of hard and wear-resistant nitrides on the surface of the workpiece!
Surface hardening like flame hardening, induction hardening, laser...
Laser hardening of steel (surface hardening)
With laser hardening, the surface is heated by a laser beam and quenched by heat dissipation in the workpiece (self quenching)!
Laser-beam hardening (laser hardening) offers even shorter heating times of the...
Induction hardening of steel (surface hardening)
With induction hardening, the workpiece is heated by induced eddy currents. The hardening depth is controlled by the frequency of the alternating current!
The flames during flame hardening generally lead to a...
Flame hardening of steel (surface hardening)
Surface hardening is used to produce a hard and wear-resistant surface layer on steel workpieces, while the toughness in the core is largely retained.
Introduction
A hard surface layer is essential to increase...
Case hardening (surface hardening)
With case hardening, low-carbon steels are first enriched with carbon in the surface layer (carburisation) and then quenched!
Case hardening
The toughness (ductility) of steels increases with decreasing carbon content, as then less...
Quenching and tempering of steel
The aim of quenching and tempering is to achieve a hard and wear-resistant surface or to increase the strength of a workpiece.
Introduction
The heat treatments explained in the chapter on annealing processes...
Normalizing of steel (annealing)
The aim of normalizing is to achieve a uniform homogeneous microstructure with reproducible properties!
As already explained in the chapter deformability of metals, fine roundish grains generally lead to better toughness and...
Overview of heat treatment of steel
Heat treatment processes are used to specifically influence the properties of the steel.
The microstructure of a steel has a particular influence on its properties. However, the steel microstructure is not only...