Heat Treating Stainless Steel

Heat Treating Stainless Steel

Heat treating, a process that is used to harden or soften metals by heating and cooling them until they achieve their desired point of hardness, is often performed on stainless steel. In this metal, the structure and composition of the grains, or crystallites, determines its overall mechanical qualities. Heat treating is an energy-intensive process that changes this atomic structure, therefore changing its mechanical behavior. Steel and stainless steel are the most commonly heat treated metals.

Several important techniques are employed during the heat treating process, such as annealing, quenching, and tempering. Annealing is a process by which a metal is heated and then cooled very slowly, leaving the metal soft and ductile, whereas quenching refers to the rapid cooling of metal. Quenching is often used to increase stainless steel's strength. Tempering, in contrast, is performed to strengthen the stainless steel. In tempering, the steel is heated to extreme heat, between 400 and 600 degrees Celsius, and maintained at this temperature until the carbon diffuses to produce bainite or pearlite.

Many different kinds of equipment, including furnaces, torches, salt bathes, heating blankets, and lasers, are used during the heat treating process. Heat treating is used to make a variety of stainless steel products for the automotive, construction, manufacturing, and tool and die industries.