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IV. Discharge. Tempering refers to the process of heating the steel from the
phase change temperature to a lower temperature and making the steel more stable.
Such heat treatment increases the viscosity of steel.
The purpose of these thermal operations
is to create a balanced, stabilized
structure.
The following steel softening methods are used to achieve the intended goal:
A) Recrystallizing softening. This method is used to eliminate the effect of cold
plastic deformation. For this purpose, the steel subjected to welding is heated to a
temperature of A
ci ;
b) Diffusion softening. This method is used to eliminate dendrite liquefaction in
steels. Heating temperature 1100...1150
0
C;
c) Full softening. Such softening is used to create a balanced structure. Softening
is carried out t=A
c3
+ (30-50
0 C);
g) premature softening. Such softening is mainly used to reduce internal stresses
and to form granular pearlite. Steel A
ci
-A
s3
in cold tempering
heated to a range of
temperatures;
d) Freezing softening. This method is carried out at a temperature higher than
A
for post-eutectoid steels . After such treatment, the cementite of pearlite has a granular
form;
e) Isothermal softening. The formation of a homogeneous ferrite cementite
mixture is carried out at
a uniform, constant, temperature higher than A
s3
or A
s1 .
This
type of annealing is advantageous from an economic point of view, because in this
method
it is easy to control the temperature, depending on the cooling rate . Isothermal
softening is more commonly used for alloy steels:
j) Normalization. Thermal treatment is performed by heating this type of steel to
temperatures
higher than A
s3
by 30...50
0
s and then consisting of air cooling.
Normalizing heat treatment is often the final heat treatment for steels.
In all types of annealing, the steel heated to the optimum temperature is held at
this temperature for a certain period of time to complete the phase changes, and then
the steel is cooled slowly (often with a furnace).