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Heat treatment of steels

Coarse grain annealing of a free cutting steel

Coarse-grain annealing of steel

The aim of coarse grain annealing is to improve machinability! https://youtu.be/PJ2FKTHAo5s 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

Soft annealing of steel

The aim of soft annealing is to improve formability and machinability! https://youtu.be/PJ2FKTHAo5s Not every material has to be designed to withstand high mechanical forces. With a curved sheet metal with milled out slots,...
Nitriding of a nitriding steel

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! https://youtu.be/7UcNNuqKA6U Surface hardening like flame hardening, induction hardening, laser...
Laser hardening

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)! https://youtu.be/7UcNNuqKA6U Laser-beam hardening (laser hardening) offers even shorter heating times of the...
Induction hardening

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! https://youtu.be/7UcNNuqKA6U The flames during flame hardening generally lead to a...
Flame hardening of a surface

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. https://youtu.be/7UcNNuqKA6U Introduction A hard surface layer is essential to increase...
Carburizing of a case-hardening steel

Case hardening (surface hardening)

With case hardening, low-carbon steels are first enriched with carbon in the surface layer (carburisation) and then quenched! https://youtu.be/7UcNNuqKA6U Case hardening The toughness (ductility) of steels increases with decreasing carbon content, as then less...
Temperature curve during quenching and tempering

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. https://youtu.be/64qw1am8twE Introduction The heat treatments explained in the chapter on annealing processes...
Normalization of a heterogeneous microstructure

Normalizing of steel (annealing)

The aim of normalizing is to achieve a uniform homogeneous microstructure with reproducible properties! https://youtu.be/PJ2FKTHAo5s As already explained in the chapter deformability of metals, fine roundish grains generally lead to better toughness and...
Temperature ranges of the heat treatment processes

Overview of heat treatment of steel

Heat treatment processes are used to specifically influence the properties of the steel. https://youtu.be/PJ2FKTHAo5s The microstructure of a steel has a particular influence on its properties. However, the steel microstructure is not only...