Part designers and heat treatment practitioners are looking for process feasibility, a specific microstructure fitting to the in-service requirements, minimum part distortion, and proper distribution of residual stresses. Heat treatment must therefore be taken into account during development and design, and it has to be controlled in the manufacturing process.
Therefore, success or failure of heat treatment not only affects manufacturing costs but also determines product quality and reliability. However, apart from the desired effects, the heat treatment process can be accompanied by unwanted effects such as component distortion, high material hardness, low material strength, a lack of toughness-which can lead to crack formation-and inadequate hardness depth, which can lead to fatigue failure.
Heat treatment is an indispensable step in the manufacture of steel products, as mechanical properties such as hardness, static, and dynamic strength and toughness are selectively controlled by deliberate manipulation of the chemical and metallurgical structure of a component.
