Heat Treatment of Steel

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses the types, methods, and advantages of heat treating procedures, including annealing, normalizing, tempering, and case hardening. It describes the iron-carbon system, the formation of equilibrium and metastable phases, and the effect of alloy elements on hardenability and tempering response. It discusses the significance of critical temperatures, the use of transformation diagrams, and types of annealing treatments. It also provides information on heat treating furnaces, the effect of heating rate on transformation temperatures, quench and temper procedures, and the use of cold treating.