Make Sure Your

Specified Heat Treatment

is Achievable
is a function of the carbon content of

B
ased on many years of expe-
rience as a commercial heat the steel being used. For example, if
treater, the most common the material selected is 4140 having a
Failure to consider the mistakes made by engineers carbon range of 0.37-0.44%, one
statistical nature of and customers (mostly with smaller would expect the surface to be ap-
proximately 99.9% martensite after
material chemical companies) are in specifying mate-
quenching. Thus, the expected as-
rials, defining the required heat treat-
compositions and ment processes, and / or specifying quenched hardness would be 54-58
processes can lead to reasonable tolerances for the desired HRC for all the heats of 4140H that are
hardness or case depth results. available. The ability to achieve this
writing unrealistic heat These mistakes result generally hardness would be dependent on the
treating specifications. from a failure to recognize the statis- severity of quenching, the quenchant
used, and the adequate removal of
To achieve consistent tical nature of both materials chem-
surface decarburization that might be
ical composition (specifically steels)
results that meet the and processes. Often, the proper tol- present on the wrought steel product.
specification after heat erances for the specified heat treat In the case of furnace heat treating,
properties are either too ambiguous the maximum attainable surface
treatment, the or too restrictive from a realistic hardness depends on steel carbon
specification must include standpoint. There are a few basic content and the hardenability of the
steel. The maximum section size that
tolerances that are metallurgical guidelines that can,
will harden through to maximum
from a practical standpoint, help to
achievable on a avoid these problems. surface hardness in oil is shown
commercial basis. below
Steel Selection
Problems in specifying a steel Maximum
Steel grade section size, in.
grade for a particular application
Jon L. Dossett, P.E.* 1045 0.250
generally involve selecting a steel
Consultant, Chandler, Ariz. 5140 0.750
grade that cannot be hardened to the 4140 1.5
specified hardness specified and 4340 3.0
specifying a surface or core hardness
range that is too restrictive. Table 1 The commercially accepted range
provides a guideline for the max- for surface hardness after tempering
imum surface hardness achievable is 5 HRC points or 40 BHN points as
* Fellow and Life member of using induction hardening or an ap- shown in Table 2.
ASM International, and member, plied surface-heating hardening Determining the expected core
ASM Heat Treating Society treatment. The maximum hardness hardness range can be determined
Table 1 — Carbon content vs. hardness for different martensite levels [1]
Carbon Rockwell hardness for percent martensite Carbon Rockwell hardness for percent martensite
content, content,
wt% 80% 90% 95% 99.9% wt% 80% 90% 95% 99.9%
0.31 42 45 47 51 0.45 49 53 55 58
0.32 43 46 48 51 0.46 50 53 56 59
0.33 43 46 48 52 0.47 50 54 56 59
0.34 44 47 49 52 0.48 51 54 57 59
0.35 44 47 49 53 0.49 51 54 57 60
0.36 44 47 49 53 0.50 52 55 58 60
0.37 45 49 51 54 0.51 52 55 58 60
0.38 46 49 51 55 0.52 53 55 58 61
0.39 46 50 52 55 0.53 53 56 59 61
0.40 47 50 52 56 0.54 53 56 59 61
0.41 47 51 53 56 0.55 54 56 59 61
0.42 48 51 54 57 0.56 54 56 60 62
0.43 48 52 54 57 0.57 54 57 60 62
0.44 49 52 55 58 0.58 55 57 60 62

HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007 23

 Table 2 — Commercially acceptable print specification by using the Jominy equivalent
cooling rate (JEC) chart (Fig. 1) and
tolerances for properly specified materials the hardenability band for the steel
Process Variable Req. tolerance range being used (Fig. 2). JEC curves for
Hardening Surface hardness 5 HRC points 4140H show that using a strong oil
Surface hardness 40 BHN points(a) quench results in a surface hardness
Core hardness JEC “H” range for a 2 in. round would be at J4 and
Case hardening Surface hardness (60 HRC) 2 HRC points the core would at J8.5. The harden-
Surface hardness (HRC 50-59) 3 HRC points ability curves show that the corre-
Case depth: <0.010 in. 0.004 in. sponding surface hardness would be
Case depth: 0.011-0.040 in. 0.005 in. 51-59 HRC with a core hardness of
Case depth: 0.025-0.050 in. 0.007 in. 46-57 HRC. The actual hardness of a
Case depth: >0.050 in. 0.010 in. given heat of steel would depend
Surface carbon levels 0.10% C strictly on the specific hardenability
(a) Must use Brinell numbers corresponding to BID in 0.05 mm increments. of that heat.
To reduce the variation in hard-
Center
ening response and thus narrow the
1.5

0.50
0.35
0.20

H value Quench Agitation

surface and core hardness values that
1/2 in. 0.20 Oil No
rd.
1/2 radius result after heat treatment, the hard-
0.35 Oil Moderate
enability of the steel chosen can be
0.50 Oil Good
0.70
1.0

Surface 0.70 Oil Strong narrowed by either using an “H”

1.0 Water No steel or using a restricted harden-
Center
Bar diameter, in.

2.0

0.50
0.35
0.20

1.5 Water Strong ability specification of an “H” steel.

2.0 Brine No The effect on hardenability of an 8620
3/4 in. 5.0 %rine Strong
1/2 radius steel having a specified chemical
rd.
f Ideal
1.0 1.5

composition versus 8620H is shown

0.70

quench
Surface in Fig. 3. The effect of changing to
8620H for carburized parts having a
Center
f
1.0

0.50
0.35

0.20

cross section less than 1 in. is a reduc-

tion of up to 30% in the variation in
1 in. rd. 1/2 radius core hardness after heat treatment
1.5 5.0

and greater dimensional stability.

0.70
2.0

Surface Generally, you want to select the

0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 most economical steel that when heat
Jominy distance, 1/16 in.
treated will achieve the desired prop-
Fig. 1 — Jominy equivalent cooling rate by bar size and quench severity [2]. erty or properties such as surface
and/or core hardness, tensile and/or
Hardness limits for UNS H86200 Hardenability band SAE/AISI 8620H
specific purposes yield strength, etc. To select the
C Mn Si Ni Cr Mo
“J” dis-
tance,
proper steel, one should first check
0.17/0.23 0.60/0.95 0.15/0.35 0.35/0.75 0.35/0.65 0.15/0.25
sixteenths the maximum attainable hardness
of an 8620 H
inch Max Min Diameters of rounds with same as-quenched hardness, in. Location in round Quench
chart such as Table 1 using the carbon
1 48 41
2 47 37
24 Surface Mild range that will give the required sur-
1 2 3 4 3/4 radius from center water
3 44 32 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 Center quench face hardness, from the 95 or 99.9 %
4 41 27
5 37 23 1 2 3 4 Surface
Mild oil martensite column. Following these
6 34 21 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 3/4 radius from center
7 32 — 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 Center
quench guidelines will also result in greater
8
9
30
29
—
— 65 dimensional stability and uniformity
10 28 — after heat treatment.
11 27 — 60
Rockwell Hardness C scale

12 26 —
13 25 — 55 Resulfurized Steel-Hardenability
14 25 —
15 24 — 50 Problems
16 24 —
18 23 — 45
A factor that is often overlooked in
20
22
23
23
—
—
specifying resulfurized steels for case
40
24 23 — hardening processes is the interrela-
26 23 — 35
28 22 — tionship and reaction of sulfur and
30 22 —
32 22 —
30 manganese that can have a signifi-
Heat Treating 25 cant effect on both case and core
Temperatures
recommended by hardenability and microstructure.
SAE 20
*Normalize 1700°F 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 All steels contain very small
Austenitize 1700°F Distance from quenched end, sixteenths of an inch amounts of sulfur, but certain grades
*For forged or rolled
specimens only
Fig. 2 — Jominy hardenability data for SAE 8620 steel [3]. of steels have much larger quantities
24 HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007
of sulfur present, which combines
50
with some of the manganese to form
the compound manganese sulfide
(MnS). The manganese sulfide serves
as a chip breaker and lubricity agent
that cause these steel grades to be

Rockwell C hardness
more machinable than other stan- 40
dard lower sulfur steels.
The formation of MnS as inclu-
8620H
sions has some negative effects in- 8620
cluding:
• Reduction the fatigue limit com- 30
pared with low sulfur steels and the
tendency “banding” in the steel in
the as-rolled condition.
• Removal of a substantial part of
the manganese as manganese sulfide 20
lowers the hardenability of the steel. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The reduction of manganese avail- Jominy distance, 1/16 in.
able to aid in hardenability is directly Fig. 3 — Comparison of Jominy hardenability curves for SAE 8620H and 8620 steels; chem-
related to the amount of sulfur ical composition at maximum and minimum of the composition range.
present. The interaction of man- This calculation can be used to de-
ganese and sulfur when they com- termine the amount of manganese
bine to form manganese sulfide is de- available for hardenability for some
termined by the ratio of atomic common steels used for case hard-
weights of Mn (56) and S (32), or ening and induction processing as
56/32; i.e., 0.0175 wt% of the man- shown Table 3. The available man-
ganese combines with each 0.01 wt% ganese and other alloying elements,
of sulfur present. as well as grain size, influence case

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www.pillar.com • sales@pillar.com ISO 9001: 2000
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HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007 25

Table 3 — Manganese available for hardenability
for some common heat treated steels
Steel grade Specified Mn, wt% Tied up as MnS, wt% Available Mn, wt%
12L14 0.85-1.15 0.45-0.61 0.24-0.70
1117 1.00-1.30 0.14-0.23 0.77-1.16
1018 0.60-0.90 0-0.09 0.51-0.90
1141 1.35-1.65 0.14-0.23 1.12-1.51
1144 1.35-1.65 0.42-0.58 0.78-1.23
1045 0.60-0.90 0-0.09 0.51-0.90
Table 4 — Minimum effective case depth required
for accurate hardness test results
Effective case depth(a), in. Hardness test method
<0.010 File test or microindentation
0.011-0.015 Rockwell 15 N scale
0.016-0.018 Rockwell 30 N scale
0.019-0.021 Rockwell 45 N scale
0.022-0.027 Rockwell A scale
>0.028 Rockwell C scale
(a)Case hardness must be 55HRC min.
To reduce the variation and core hardenability. However, for
the steels listed, manganese is the
in hardening response principal alloying element.
and thus narrow the During a carburizing or carboni-
triding treatment, control of the fur-
surface and core hardness nace parameters of time, tempera-
values that result after ture, and atmosphere carbon
establish the carbon penetration pro-
heat treatment, the file for a given steel chemistry. How-
hardenability of the steel ever, the effective case depth (to 50
HRC) depends on case hardenability
chosen can be narrowed and the core hardness achieved de-
by either using an “H” pends on hardenability. Thus, for the
same total case carbon profile, the
steel or using a restricted higher the case hardenability, the
hardenability specification higher the effective case. For this
reason, effective case depth varia-
of an “H” steel. tions for resulfurized materials are
significantly greater than those for
non-resulfurized steels.
The final negative effect of case
hardening resulfurized steels is the
large variation in case microstructure
(principally with regard to retained
austenite) when a constant heat
treating process is used. The problem
can be attributed to the variation in
manganese levels due to varying
amounts of sulfur present.
Terminology
When specifying the required
case-hardening heat treatment, it is
important to define the process to
be used, to define the case depth,
and proper hardness testing scale to
be used. This is illustrated in a case
study where hardened light-duty
bearings made of 1117 steel failed
26 HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007
after being heat treated to a speci-
fication stating: “Case harden to
0.015-0.020 in. depth. Surface RC 58
minimum.” The specification was
unclear to the heat treater, although
the specification was not questioned
until litigation ensued as a result of
a part failure.
There are several technical prob-
lems with the specification regarding
process definition, case depth defi-
nition, and the use of an improper
hardness scale to measure the hard-
ness of case depth. The discussion in-
volved what each party meant or in-
terpreted from the specification when
the real problem was that the met-
allurgical requirements were not
clearly defined or communicated on
the drawing. As a result, the bearing
manufacturer wrote heat treat spec-
ifications covering all heat treatments
used for bearings, including micro-
structural requirements for case
hardened parts.
Setting Reasonable Tolerances:
Attainable Hardness Values
When specifying the hardness
range or tolerance for either expected
surface hardness values or core hard-
ness, it is necessary to recognize the
full range of hardenability of the
specified steel at the point of interest
on, or in, the part. The expected vari-
ation in surface hardness after induc-
tion or flame hardening can be deter-
mined by checking the high and low
values of the carbon for the specific
grade of steel versus the hardness
values shown in the 99.9% marten-
site column in Table 1. SAE 1045 steel
with a carbon range of 0.43-0.50% can
be hardened to 57-60 HRC as fully
quenched to martensite, but SAE
4140 steel with a carbon range of 0.38-
0.43% can only be hardened to 55-57
HRC.
For through-hardening heat
treatments, the curves in Fig. 1 can
be used with the Jominy harden-
ability data for the specific steel
grade to predict the actual variation
in surface or core hardness for a
given steel and quenching situa-
tion. To predict the expected varia-
tion in core hardness at the center
of 0.5 in. section of 8620H (Fig. 1),
the center of the section when
quenched in oil with good agitation
(H = .35) will yield hardnesses showing acceptable microstructures Specify the required
equivalent to about the J3 position. that can be used by both parties
From the Jominy hardenability data when doing the evaluation. heat treat process
shown in Fig. 2, the hardness values
Practical Considerations
results, NOT how to
at the J3 position are 32-44 HRC, or
a 12 RC point spread. This range of If consistent results are to be do the process.
core hardness values would be an achieved that meet the specification
appropriate print specification after heat treatment, the specification
given this specific situation. must include tolerances that are
achievable on a commercial basis.
Part Geometry Effects Commercially available tolerances
Both the total case depth and ef- for hardness, case depth, and case
fective case depth can vary on a part Continued
that is uniformly heat treated due to
section size, steel hardenability, and
part geometry. Therefore, it is a very
good practice to identify the critical
area or areas where case depth or
core hardness values are to be deter-
mined. This identification is not so
critical on gears where it is generally
understood that the tests are to be at
the pitch line or root diameter. For
other parts, such as tubes, shafts,
and parts having convex or concave
spherical sections, it is very impor-
tant to define the testing location.
The effective case depth on a part
having both a flat surface and con-
cave surface can vary as much as
30% on a properly carburized part.

Hardness Testing
When specifying the surface hard-
ness requirements for case hardened
parts, care must be taken to specify
the proper hardness scale to be used.
This is to ensure that the case will
support the test and accurate hard-
ness values are obtained. The rela-
tionship between the hardness test
method that can be used and the re-
quired minimum specified effective
case depth is shown in Table 4.

Microstructure
Often, the required microstructure
for a part is specified on the blue-
print. It is important to recognize that
the microstructure may vary signif-
icantly in various areas of a part that
has been properly heat treated.
Therefore, it may be important to de-
fine where and how the microstruc-
ture is to be checked. When mi-
crostructures are part of the print
specification and, thus, must be eval-
uated by both the supplier and cus-
tomer, there is a definite need for a
visual photomicrograph standard
HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007 27
Table 5 — Ratio of effective- carbon levels are shown in Table 2. • Specify hardness using the
Other factors that should be consid- proper hardness scales with accepted
to-total case depths for ered include: evaluation techniques that are based
carburize/carbonitride cycles • The required hardness scale that on standards; i.e., ASTM, SAE, or
for different oil-quenched should be used to obtain accurate company specifications.
0.5 in. steel sections hardness test results (Table 4). • Specify and use “H” steels when-
• The expected ratio of effective- ever possible. Specify restricted ”H”
Effective case /
to-total case relationships for some band hardness values for the steel if
Steel grade total case depth
common carburized and carboni- hardness values need to be more re-
1215 0.25-0.35 trided steels after oil quenching strictive.
12L14 0.30-0.45
1117 0.40-0.55 (Table 5). • Consider writing heat treating
1026 0.30-0.45 • The effect of lower effective-to- specifications that provide more de-
8620 0.65-0.80 total case ratios on processing time tail and definition to the required
and, thus, the economics of pro- process results and how they are to
Table 6 — Relative furnace cessing costs (Table 6). be measured.
times for carburize / • Specify achievable heat treating
Conclusion results recognizing the statistical
carbonitride cycles for 0.030 The following guidelines should nature of materials and
in. effective case depths in be considered to adequately and processes.
0.5 in. sections properly specify the required heat
treatment: References
Steel grade Furnace time, h 1. J I Case/IH Specification A-D, Part III,
• Specify the required heat treat
1215 13 p 8, 1974.
process results, NOT how to do the 2. Practical Data for Metallurgists,
12L14 9
1117 5 process. The exception is when you Timken Company, p53, 1991.
8620 3 know certain processing pitfalls that 3. SAE Handbook, Vol. 1, Materials, p 1.72,
you wish to avoid. 1989.
• Define the critical areas on the For more information: Jon Dossett is
part and where the process verifica- a consultant, tel: 480-323-8185; e-mail:
tion tests are to be made. jdossett@cox.net.

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30 HEAT TREATING PROGRESS • MARCH/APRIL 2007