Heat Treatment
Hardening, quenching and tempering, tempering, annealing, and case hardening — how you control microstructure and properties with heat.
Hardening & Tempering
Hardening makes steel glass-hard, but also brittle — so every hardening is followed by tempering. Together, this is called quenching and tempering and produces the perfect combination of strength and toughness. If you understand the process, you also know why the heat-affected zone hardens during welding and how to prevent it.
Analyse & Artikel →Annealing & Normalizing
Not every heat treatment makes harder. Annealing and normalizing make steel softer, more uniform, and less stressed — exactly what you often need after welding. Stress relief annealing is the most important post-treatment of all to reduce residual stresses and crack risk.
Analyse & Artikel →Case Hardening
Sometimes you only want the surface hard — the core should stay tough. That's exactly what case hardening processes do: carburizing, nitriding, and induction hardening. Gears, shafts, and bearings run hard on the surface and tough inside. Knowing them also helps you understand case-hardening steels.
Analyse & Artikel →Post-Weld Heat Treatment
After welding, the job is often not done. Stress-relief annealing reduces residual stresses, tempering neutralizes the hardened HAZ, and hydrogen release annealing drives out the crack-triggering hydrogen. These post-treatments determine whether a weld holds — especially for thick, high-strength, or safety-critical parts.
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