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LAB REPORT
EXPERIMENT 1
OBJECTIVE
To determine the hardness of a carbon steel and an alloy steel per annealing time.
INTRODUCTION
consequence of given heat treatment. It is also a qualitative steel property which indicates the
With the annealing test, a disc specimen is heated up to 900C which is austenite range at
Austenitization is the process of heat iron based metal from pearlite or ferrite to austenite. The
austenitized specimen is then dipped into quenching medium such as water at room temperature
to allow rapid cooling. During quenching process, the cooling rate on the surface of specimen is
maximum leads to formation of martensite. However, this is impossible to cool the specimen at
uniform rate throughout the quenching process. Surface of specimen is cooled more rapidly than
the interior of specimen. Therefore, austenite will transform over a range of temperature. This
might form variation of microstructure and properties on the position or depth within the
specimen (Lpsindia.com, n.d.). The hardness is increased with the amount of martensite and
pearlite to austenite reaction therefore increases the hardenability. The grain size of austenite and
carbon content will also affect the hardenability (Mehran Maalekian, 2007). Besides, delay of
alloying materials leads to longer formation time for austenite. (Rose-hulman.edu, n.d.).
1. Furnace
3. Grinder/Polisher Machine
4. Metallurgical Microscope
PROCEDURE
2. Once the furnace temperature is stabilized at 900C, all 4 steel specimens are put into the
furnace.
6. Once the samples are cold, the samples are grinded and polished until it is clean and flat.
8. The samples are then dipped into the etchant solution for 10 to 15 minutes before
micrographic is taken.
1 21.21 1 8.91
3 26.19 3 9.07
1 58.69 1 60.58
3 58.44 3 58.44
1 53.22 1 52.15
3 52.94 3 52.11
Graph 1: The Hardness reading of Alloy Steel and Carbon Steel at Different Time.
Figure 1 Figure 2
B) Micrograph for 10 Minutes Annealing Time
Figure 3 Figure 4
Figure 5 Figure 6
DISCUSSIONS
In this experiment, two types of materials which is carbon steels (AISI 1191) and alloy steels
(AISI 7225) were used to determine the hardness. Each type of material has a total of 3 sets in
which the furnace was heated up to 900C at 0 minute, 10 minutes and 20 minutes. The 3 sets of
different annealing time for carbon and alloy were used to make comparison based on the
hardness of each material. The comparison methods were done by Rockwell hardness test and by
After annealing test, the heated materials was quenched immediately in the water after
taking out from the furnace in order to ensure the maximum rapid cooling rate. By quenching
process, martensite arrangement was formed because the carbon atoms unable to form cementite
or iron carbide and the atoms were trapped within a frozen austenite structure. Due to difficult
movement of dislocation, the quenched material became extremely hard and brittle (Annealing,
Carbon steel and alloy steel consist of different atom arrangement forms. Hardenability is
commonly measured as the distance below a quenched surface in which the metal exhibits
hardenability of the element depends on the different arrangements in atom structure. Alloy steel
capable of forming martensite when quenched. Alloy steel has the higher hardenability because it
consists of manganese, nickel and other elements which can increase the hardenability of the
material.
Based on the results in Table 1, both alloy and carbon steel have the highest Rockwell
hardness readings at 10 minutes of heating. Regardless of the time used, the Rockwell hardness
readings for alloy steel are always higher than carbon steel. Carbon steel is a plain steel that
contains only carbon and iron, while alloy steel contains elements other than carbon and iron.
For example, manganese, silicon, boron, chromium, vanadium and nickel (Olivia, 2011). These
impurities in alloy steel will undergo dislocation, thus distort the arrangement of atoms. The
lattice strain field interaction between dislocation and impurity atoms is to restrict the dislocation
Refer to Graph 1, 0 minute annealing showed that alloy steel has a higher HRC reading than
carbon steel. The purpose of doing annealing test in 0 minutes is to act as a control. As we can
observe from the micrograph obtained (Figure 1 &2), there is a lot of scratching line shape on
both material surface but no nuclei formed. The dark pattern area indicates that the
boundaries. This proved that there are no dislocations to be found since both materials did the
least cold work. Therefore, the hardness readings of both materials at 0 minute are the lowest in
the graph.
Refer to Graph 1, both materials (carbon and alloy) have the highest hardness reading (HRC)
both sample at that moments. Therefore, it allows the grain size to grow and relieves most of the
residual stress in the materials. Indeed, the hardness and toughness of both of the materials are
improved.
In contrast with the result for 0 minutes annealing, carbon steel has a higher Rockwell
hardness than alloy steel in 10 minutes. This is because recrystallization always occurs faster in
pure metal than alloys. The motion of grain boundary occurs as there is growth of new nuclei
during recrystallization. (Annealing-Recrystallization, 2016). Thus, the impurity atom more
likely to segregate and interact with recrystallized grain boundaries to reduce their mobility and
effectively cancel out most of the strain which surrounds a dislocation (PLAYING WITH
PROPERTIES, 2016). This is due to the formation of a new set of strain-free and equiaxed
grains that have low dislocation densities and the occurrence of precold-worked condition
(Annealing-Recrystallization, 2016).
Based on carbon steel in Figure 3, there is annihilation of dislocation with most of the dark
area clearing off. Grain elongation is observed indicating the recovery of deformed grain.
Besides, the microstructure in Figure 3 is having a ferrite-austenite duplex phase. The annealing
process affects the spatial distribution of ferrite at grain boundaries due to oxidation at metal
surface. Normalizing also produces a uniform fined grain structure of ferrite and pearlite with
large grain size. (Industrial Engineering Letters, 2014). In figure 4, there is some formation of
fine grains as compared to Figure 2. This showed that the nuclei is formed during
recrystallization.
For 20 minutes of annealing process, the hardness readings for both steel are dropped, which
are lower than 10 minutes. In this stage, both of the materials undergo further recrystallization
and grain growth. The grain growth might decrease the strength and hardness of materials. The
hardness of the materials reduces due to the longer heating time. Based on Figure 5 and 6, the
microstructure becomes courser in this stage. The oxidation of the materials resulting the surface
of both materials becomes rough, thus we can conclude that the longer the time for heating, the
formation of new grains keep increasing while the new grains that are formed from small nuclei
grow and restore its mechanical properties (Callister, W. D. & Rethwisch, D. G., 2014).
The purpose of dipping the samples into the etchant solution (97ml of ethanol and 3ml of
nitric acid) is to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in
the metal (Black Church Print Studio, 2016). After dipping the etchant solution, the surface of
samples becomes muddy, therefore a clearer view of the micro-structures under microscope.
There are some possible error sources occurred in this experiment. First, the temperature
of furnace may decrease to the surrounding when we insert or take out the specimens. This will
cause the heating temperature to change in order to reach the original temperature which is in the
furnace. Second, the cooling rate for the specimens during quenching process is different
because outer surface of specimen which exposed to water undergoes direct heat transfer
(convection) while inner part of specimen undergoes indirect heat transfer by conduction from
outer surface with higher temperature. Third, the water supply pipe was malfunction during the
grinding process, thus we poured water on the sandpaper by hands. This may affect the
when tested with Rockwell hardness test, the specimen surface which is uneven and attached
with foreign materials may affect the result. Fifth, the micrograph can be affected when the
Based on the possible errors that might occur in our experiment, we took few precaution
steps to minimize the errors. The furnace door should be closed properly and quickly after
inserting or taking out the specimens. Small round specimens is used in this experiment to ensure
constant cooling rate throughout the specimens. Make sure the water is poured in the constant
rate during the grinding process in order to polish the surface of specimens. The specimens must
be grinded until it is a flat surface before testing in Rockwell hardness test. The specimens have
to handle with care after dipping in the etchant solution so that a better micrograph image can be
obtained.
Apart from that, extra care must be given when using the Rockwell Hardness Tester.
Make sure the specimen surfaces are maintain in a clean state (Iowa State University of Science
and Technology, 2016). The thickness of specimens should be at least 8 times larger than the
indenter penetration depth (Iowa State University of Science and Technology, 2016). The scale
is turned down slowly until it reaches a desired position. The elevation handle must be turned
into anti-clockwise direction after the hardness reading is taken to prevent the indenter from
damage.
CONCLUSION
Before annealing, the hardness of alloy steel and carbon steel are 22.50HRC and 8.81HRC
respectively. After annealing for 10 minutes, the hardness for alloy steel and carbon steel has
increased to 57.69 HRC and 60.03 HRC respectively. The hardness for alloy steel and carbon
steel has decreased to 53.15 HRC and 51.99 HRC respectively after annealing for 20 minutes.
The results show that annealing heat treatment has changed the microstructure of samples and
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