章跃机械制造工程专业英语---Lesson 2 Hardening and Tempering.docxVIP

Lesson 2 Hardening and TemperingPlain carbon steel has been valued from early time because of certain properties. This soft silver-gray metal could be converted into a superhard substance that would cut glass and many other substances, including itself when soft. Furthermore, its hardness could be controlled. This converting of carbon steel into a steel of useful hardness is done with different heat treatments, two of the most important of which are hardening and tempering (drawing), which you will investigate in this lesson.Hardening by quenchingAs steel is heated above the lower critical temperature of 1330F (721C), the carbon that was in the form of layers of iron carbide in pearlite begins to dissolve in the iron and form a solid solution called austenite. When this solution of iron and carbon is suddenly cooled or quenched, a new microstructure is formed. This is called martensite. Martensite is very hard and brittle, having a much higher tensile strength than the steel with a pearlite microstructure. It is quite unstable, however, and must be tempered (drawn) to relieve internal stresses in order to have the ductility and toughness needed to be useful. AISI-C1095, commonly known as water-hardening tool (W1) steel, will begin to show hardness when quenched from a temperature just over 1330F (721C) but will not harden at all if quenched from a temperature lower than 1330F (721C). This steel will become as hard as it can get when heated to 1450F (788C) and quenched in water. This quenching temperature changes as the carbon content changes. It should be 50F (28C) above the upper critical temperature for carbon steels containing less than 0.83 percent carbon. The reason carbon steel ,less than eutectoid, should be heated above the upper critical temperature is that the ferrite is not all transformed into austenite below this point, and when quenched, is retained in the martensitic structure. The retained ferrite causes brittleness even after tempering.Low carbon s