The cool thing about this treasure trove of technical information is that we are able to track what visitors look at – including articles that were posted in the early 2000s. 

As our 90th-anniversary year winds to a close, we take a look at an updated reader resource affectionately called the Heat Treat Wheel. Some years ago, we created this source of reader-chosen “evergreen” articles for all of our topic categories. It can be found under our “Featured” tab by clicking on “Heat Treatment Processes.” Admittedly, it looks more like a pie than a wheel, but the wheel is a better metaphor, so we will continue to use that name.

Vacuum thermal processing is vital for automotive and aerospace component manufacturers due to industry demands for the highest possible quality. Brazing and surface treatment are two process areas where vacuum technology is used.

To recap some of what we saw last month, we set out the basic concepts and began reviewing the experimental procedure and results. These results are discussed and summarized here.

Tempering occurs by heating the steel to below its critical temperature in order to transform the metastable body-centered tetragonal martensite structure that is formed during quenching into a more stable structure of fine carbide particles.