Page 75 - Shigley's Mechanical Engineering Design

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50 Mechanical Engineering Design
Quenching
Eutectoid steel that is fully annealed consists entirely of pearlite, which is obtained
from austenite under conditions of equilibrium. A fully annealed hypoeutectoid steel
would consist of pearlite plus ferrite, while hypereutectoid steel in the fully annealed
condition would consist of pearlite plus cementite. The hardness of steel of a given
carbon content depends upon the structure that replaces the pearlite when full anneal-
ing is not carried out.
The absence of full annealing indicates a more rapid rate of cooling. The rate of
cooling is the factor that determines the hardness. A controlled cooling rate is called
quenching. A mild quench is obtained by cooling in still air, which, as we have seen, is
obtained by the normalizing process. The two most widely used media for quenching
are water and oil. The oil quench is quite slow but prevents quenching cracks caused by
rapid expansion of the object being treated. Quenching in water is used for carbon steels
and for medium-carbon, low-alloy steels.
The effectiveness of quenching depends upon the fact that when austenite is cooled
it does not transform into pearlite instantaneously but requires time to initiate and com-
plete the process. Since the transformation ceases at about 800°F, it can be prevented
by rapidly cooling the material to a lower temperature. When the material is cooled
rapidly to 400°F or less, the austenite is transformed into a structure called martensite.
Martensite is a supersaturated solid solution of carbon in ferrite and is the hardest and
strongest form of steel.
If steel is rapidly cooled to a temperature between 400 and 800°F and held there
for a sufficient length of time, the austenite is transformed into a material that is gener-
ally called bainite. Bainite is a structure intermediate between pearlite and martensite.
Although there are several structures that can be identified between the temperatures
given, depending upon the temperature used, they are collectively known as bainite. By
the choice of this transformation temperature, almost any variation of structure may be
obtained. These range all the way from coarse pearlite to fine martensite.

Tempering
When a steel specimen has been fully hardened, it is very hard and brittle and has high
residual stresses. The steel is unstable and tends to contract on aging. This tendency
is increased when the specimen is subjected to externally applied loads, because the
resultant stresses contribute still more to the instability. These internal stresses can
be relieved by a modest heating process called stress relieving, or a combination of
stress relieving and softening called tempering or drawing. After the specimen has been
fully hardened by being quenched from above the critical temperature, it is reheated to
some temperature below the critical temperature for a certain period of time and then
allowed to cool in still air. The temperature to which it is reheated depends upon the
8
composition and the degree of hardness or toughness desired. This reheating operation
releases the carbon held in the martensite, forming carbide crystals. The structure
obtained is called tempered martensite. It is now essentially a superfine dispersion of
iron carbide(s) in fine-grained ferrite.
The effect of heat-treating operations upon the various mechanical properties of a
low alloy steel is shown graphically in Fig. 2–13.

8 For the quantitative aspects of tempering in plain carbon and low-alloy steels, see Charles R. Mischke, “The
Strength of Cold-Worked and Heat-Treated Steels,” Chap. 33 in Joseph E. Shigley, Charles R. Mischke, and
Thomas H. Brown, Jr. (eds.), Standard Handbook of Machine Design, 3rd ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 2004.