Heat Treatment

Hardening, tempering, annealing, case-hardening and nitriding — what each process changes in the steel, and how it shows up in the grade designation.

13 Articles — Reviewed Weekly

Articles

Learn how austempering forms bainite and martempering forms tempered martensite in steel.

Compare steel case-hardening methods by chemistry, microstructure, case depth, stress, and ISO verification.

Learn how heat treatment causes steel distortion and residual stress through thermal gradients, phase changes, and quenching.

Learn how composition, temperature, time, and cooling shape steel heat-treatment results.

Learn how quenchants, temperature, agitation, and cooling stages affect steel quenching.

Compare steel annealing and normalizing treatments by temperature, cooling rate, steel grade, and standard.

Learn how steel decarburization forms, how to measure it, and how to control it.

Learn how the Jominy test measures steel hardenability and how chemistry, grain size, and quenching shape results.

Learn how to match heat-treatment atmospheres to steel grades and control oxidation, scale, decarburization, and carbon potential.

Select the right steel heat treatment using grade, hardness, depth, geometry, and distortion risk.

Explore how composition and heat treatment govern steel tempering, secondary hardening, and Hollomon-Jaffe analysis.

Explore how steel composition and cooling shape transformation temperatures, pearlite, bainite, and martensite.

Learn how cooling rate, chemistry, and reheating shape HAZ hardness, toughness, cracking, and corrosion.