Heat treatment is a process of altering the properties of a metal through controlled heating and cooling. It is commonly used in metallurgy, manufacturing, hot forming, and welding. The process can be applied to raw materials or finished products to soften, harden, or materially change them. Steel and aluminum are the most commonly treated metals, and the process can improve their wear properties, strength, and reliability.
The process of altering the physical, chemical and mechanical properties of a metal by the application of controlled heating and cooling is known as heat treatment. It is a procedure that is applied to improve or restore the manufacturability of a product. Heat treatments are most commonly applied in metallurgy, manufacturing, hot forming and welding.
Heat treatment can be applied to raw materials, such as in the metal itself, or finished products. The methodology involves heating materials to extreme temperatures to increase internal stress. Subsequently, cooling is carried out to an extremely low temperature, a process also known as quenching. This strengthens the internal lattice structure. It also brings out the fineness in the grains which have higher tensile strength.
Heat treatment is commonly performed to soften, harden, and materially change a product. Softening reduces the hardness of a material while improving ductility and strength. Enhances toughness and also improves grain size. This is more commonly known as annealing or normalizing. Typically, it is performed to restore ductility and to relax metallic stresses within a material. Later techniques include tempering and quenching, which rapidly harden and cool the materials.
Hardening is mainly done on steel to increase its wear properties and strength and power. Sufficient carbon and alloy content is required to carry out the hardening process. When present in adequate quantities, steel is hardened directly. If the carbon content is insufficient, however, a carbon enrichment method can be used, which increases the carbon ration in carbon steel components.
Selective hardening is a variation on the curing process where different areas are subjected to different temperatures. It is also known as differential hardening. It is mainly applied to make tools such as swords, knives and tongs. Material modification is a heat treatment methodology that changes the behavioral properties of a material. Mostly applied on steel, it is used to improve aging and durability as well as strength and reliability.
Heat treatment is most often applied to large carbon steel components. Steel responds well to heat treatments, due to its extreme handling, and increases commercial efficiency after the application of a heat treatment. This makes the heat treatment of steel a widespread process in the metallurgical industry. Besides steel, aluminum is another metal that heat treatment is widely applied. Unlike steel, the heat treatment of aluminum is carried out in specially designed furnaces under highly controlled thermal conditions.
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