Heat Treatment

If you managed to muddle through the last section ( METALLURGY), congratulations ! You are well on your way to becoming an honorary Metallurgist. First, we have to talk about heat treating. Hopefully, you remember that the roperties of metals are determined by :
1- The size, shape, and orientation of grains
2- The types and relative amount of phases present
3- The amount of cold working.

By controlling the above three items, we can produce the particular properties we want in a
steel. The best way to exert this control is
through alloy additions and through heat
treatment. In this section, we’ll examine the heat
treatments that are commonly used in
manufacturing our Oil Tool materials.
Virtually all major pressure boundary partners in
Oil Tool products are made of either low alloy or
410 stainless steel. Low alloy steels are always
provided in the quenched and tempered or the
normalized, quenched, and tempered conditions
w ie410 stain ess stee is usua y provi e in
the quenched and double tempered condition .
Two other types of heat treatments that we use
are age hardening for A 286 , 17-4 PH , and
X-750 alloys and annealing for 316 stainless
steel as well as for other metals. We’ll examine
each these heat treatments in detail.

– Normalizing Normalizing involves heating a
steel to a temperature about 1000F into the fully
austenitic region, then removing the material
from the furnace and allowing it to cool in still
air . Normalizing accomplishes several things.
First, it produced a fine grained pearlitic
structure, thus enhancing the uniformity of
mechanical properties. Second, it can greatly
improve notch toughness. Third, it removes
some of the stresses that occur in the material
during forging or rolling operations. And finally it
homo enizes the material, makin it easier to
aus enl Ize In a su sequen

Mohamed Helmy Ali
Cameron Iron Works, INC
Concocted By : J. D. Dufour
Senior Product Development Metallurgist.
Oil Tool Metallurgy Department.

Published by: Mohamed Helmy Ali