Heat Treating Methods
There are many types of heat treatments that create stronger and better metals for construction, automobiles and other forms of industries. Below are a list of heat treating processes and descriptions of them.
Annealing- 300-2250°F
Used to remove stresses and soften material
Used to improve machinability, or alter physical or mechanical properties
Used to produce a defined structure
Consists of different types of annealing and different temperatures
Process Subcritical
Intercritical
Intermediate
Recovery Recrystallization
Isothermal
Spheroidize
Full Solution
Tempering– 350-1250°F
Usually follows a quenching operation
Lowers hardness of material to specific range
Lowers hardness to meet a mechanic property
Effective in relieving stress induced by quenching
Stress Relieving- 300- 1400°F
Applied to metallic materials
Metals can be cold worked, flame-cut, or weld fabricated
Reduces residual stresses
Reduces risk of premature service failure
Normalizing-1600-1800°F
Enhances uniformity via microstructure
Refines the grain size
Improve machinability and machine finish
Used as precursor for surface hardening
Hardening-up to 2250°
Uses water water-quench, oil-quench, forced or still-air quench
Used to increase toughness of alloy material
Improves mechanical properties and hardness