Quenching is an essential stage in heat treatment technology. The rapid cooling of a hot workpiece stops unacceptable low-temperature processes, including the microcrystalline alterations that would otherwise compromise the procedure. Hardness quotients drop while overall material toughness rises, all by applying a well-controlled quench. However, there are trade-offs to be […]
There’s nothing simple about heat treatment technology. Even the various microcrystalline forms of steel make the process hard to regulate. Among these forms, martensitic stainless steel ranks as a super-hard alloy. It features a dense tetragonal crystalline structure, but where does this dense configuration occur in the heat treatment process? […]
Counterintuitive consequences have been known to compromise heat treatment work. By way of illustration, steel strengthening operations should logically produce strong workpieces. However, there are times when these mathematically predictable results go out the window. Are there strange laws of probabilities in effect? Or is there a straightforward reason for […]
While medium carbon steel clearly isn’t as hard as a high-carbon alloy, those lenient mechanical qualities can be enriched. By exposing the steel to flame hardening equipment, a heat treatment technique that uses a focused cone of combusted gas, we fortify the material and reinforce its generally weaker microcrystalline bonds. […]
Much has been covered in past posts. The basics of heat treatment technology formed a foundation, then that groundwork received new and interesting additional levels. They dealt with surface hardening issues, quenching anomalies, and all manner of tricky alloy manipulating techniques. Now we’re reinforcing the groundwork and reviewing the fundamentals […]