Thermal and Metallurgical Basics of Design of High-Strength Steels

Abstract

The objective of heat treatment of metals is the creation of high-strength materials by heating and quenching. It is often recommended that alloy and high-alloy steels should be through-hardened in petroleum oils or high concentrations of aqueous polymer solutions and plain carbon, and that low-alloy steels should be quenched in water. Petroleum oils are used to reduce quench cracking and distortion of steel parts during the through-hardening process. For this reason, slow cooling is used, and expensive alloy elements provide through-hardening. Oil quenching is most often performed at low to moderate temperatures with generally acceptable thermal gradients in the cross-sections of steel parts.