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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! In general a coarse-grained steel microstructure is undesirable due to the relatively low toughness and...
Soft annealing

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...
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! Surface...
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)! Laser-beam hardening (laser hardening)...
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! The flames...
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. Introduction A...
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! Case hardening The toughness (ductility) of steels increases...
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. Introduction The heat treatments...
Normalization of a heterogeneous microstructure

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...
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. The microstructure of a steel has a particular influence on its properties....