Coarse Grain Annealing

Grain growth during welding is usually undesirable because it worsens the structure. If you cool the material too slowly after welding or hold it too long in the critical temperature range, the grains grow. This makes the steel softer and easier to machine, but also tougher and less strong. For the workshop, this means: if you want to soft-anneal a component after welding, you have to let the cooling run in a controlled, slow manner. But be careful – in normal welding work, you want to avoid exactly that, otherwise the coarse-grained zone next to the seam will break.