Our company has been performing surface treatments and heat treatments for decades, including metals and alloys, including the quenching and tempering of steels and alloys.
Today we will look specifically at the function of the heat treatment of steel quenching and tempering, one of the most requested processes.
Quenching and tempering treatment: what is it for?
The hardening of a steel involves quenching, followed by tempering to increase its hardness and improve its mechanical properties to obtain a tougher and more wear-resistant material.
Quenching and tempering: what are the process steps?
How do we make the treated metal or alloy harder and more resistant? The process begins with quenching: the material is heated above the Ac3 temperature (for hypoeutectoid steels) or AccM (for hypereutectoid steels) to achieve the complete transformation of ferrite into austenite.
After maintaining the temperature long enough to ensure complete transformation, the material is cooled down. This cooling can be carried out using different quenching media with varying severity.
The cooling rate must be higher than the critical quenching rate to achieve a full transformation from austenite to martensite, thus avoiding the formation of undesired microstructures.
Next comes tempering, which consists of reheating the material to a temperature below Ac1 (so that no allotropic transformations occur), followed by air cooling. Tempering aims to reduce the brittleness of martensite and, depending on the chosen temperature, allows the material to achieve a specific hardness as well as the required mechanical properties.
This process results in what is known as quenched and tempered steel, featuring increased strength.
Quenching and tempering of metals: our facilities
Rossi Tre uses various types of equipment to perform quenching and tempering heat treatments, ensuring the most suitable cooling through different quenching media such as water and water quench.
Thanks to our continuous investments, we have added an automatic system that allows us to carry out the quenching and tempering of steels and special alloys with improved quality results. This system guarantees proper cooling, ensured by a very short transfer time (<24 s) and perfect repeatability over time.