By Albert J. Moore Jr.
Feature
Selected Subjects of Metallurgy
Essential concepts and expanded information about metallurgy
for the welding inspector
The Certified Welding Inspector
(CWI) examination includes questions
on the subject of basic ferrous metallur-
gy — a mastery of the subject is not re-
quired to pass the examination. Yet, the
subject plays an important role in the
success or failure of welds during pro-
duction, as well as once the weldment is
placed into service. It is worthwhile to
review some of the basic concepts, and
perhaps, expand upon the information
provided by the CWI study material on
the subject of metallurgy.
This article will address how car-
bon and low alloy steels typically en-
countered in structural steel framing,
and the manufacturer of machinery,
respond to heating and cooling. Figure
1 depicts a modified iron-iron carbide
equilibrium diagram. Some of the de-
tails have been omitted for the pur-
pose of simplification.
Because we are limiting the discus-
sion to steels typically used for welded
construction, much of Fig. 1 simply
does not apply. The carbon content of
plain carbon steels used for structural
steel and machinery is typically limited
to 0.3% or less. That percentage is often
called “3 points of carbon” by the iron
industry. There are cases when the car-
bon content is increased, but the de-
signer must consider how the increased
carbon content complicates welding and
decide whether the decrease in weldabil-
ity is worth the increase in strength and
loss of ductility associated with higher
carbon content.
Heat Treatments
I have identified four different
heat treatments in Fig. 1 that can be
used with steels. They include temper-
ing, stress relief, annealing, and nor-
malizing. We’ll begin with the heat
treatment that involves the lowest
temperature range: tempering.
Tempering
Tempering is heat treatment car-
ried out after the steel has been heat-
ed, austenitized, and quenched to
harden it. The quenching operation
can utilize different quenchants. Brine
— composed of water, ice, and salt —
cools the steel very quickly and maxi-
mizes the volume of martensite pro-
duced. The carbon content strongly in-
fluences the amount of martensite
that forms by the diffusionless decom-
position of austenite. The ferrite,
which can only absorb 0.005% carbon
at room temperature, must distort to
accommodate the excess carbon (in ex-
cess of 0.005%) that was trapped in
the lattice when the steel was
quenched.
The crystalline body centered
structure is elongated to form a body-
centered tetragonal crystalline shape.
The body-centered crystalline struc-
ture is highly deformed, thus it is very
hard, very strong, and has little ductil-
ity. The new crystalline structure is
given the name martensite, which is
Inspection Trends / November 2017
essentially ferrite that is supersaturat-
ed with carbon. The higher the carbon
content, the more martensite will be
formed when quenched from the
austenitizing temperature. The hard-
ness and strength of the steel is de-
pendent on the amount of carbon in
the steel and the quench rate em-
ployed by the heat treatment. To im-
prove toughness, the steel can be tem-
pered. The steel is reheated to a low
temperature to allow some of the ex-
cess carbon to come out of solution
and form small carbides. This reduces
the hardness and the strength, but in-
creases the toughness and ductility.
The optimum properties of the
steel are produced once the quenched
steel is tempered. In other words, the
optimum balance between hardness,
strength, ductility, and toughness is
obtained by tempering. For a plain car-
bon steel, tempering is usually per-
formed between the temperatures of
400° and 800°F. As a point of interest,
low alloy quenched and tempered
steels are tempered at much higher
temperatures than a plain carbon
steel. Steels with low carbon content
rarely need to be tempered because
they do not contain sufficient carbon
to be hardened by quenching.
Stress Relieving
Stress relieving is performed at a
higher temperature than tempering.
While tempering removes some of the
27
hardness, stress relieving reduces the
hardness even more. When compared
to tempering, stress relieving allows
more carbon to come out of solution.
Stress relief is usually performed after
cold forming (for example, bending or
rolling) or after a thermal operation
such as thermal cutting or welding. In
each case, after cold working or a ther-
mal cycle, the residual stresses are on
the same order of magnitude as the
yield strength of the base metal. Resid-
ual stresses are usually much higher
than the allowable unit stress permit-
ted by a design standard. Residual
stress can be analyzed as vectors. Thus,
if there are intersecting stress fields
(from the residual stresses), imagine
two intersecting welds as depicted in
Fig. 2, the resultant can exceed the ten-
sile strength of the base metal.
Intersecting welds (and the result-
ing residual stresses) produce an in-
creased potential for cracking. As the
examples in Fig. 2 indicate, the result-
ant residual stress may be less than
the tensile strength of the base metal
or it may exceed. As indicated by the
examples in Fig. 2, as the yield
strength of the steel increases, the re-
sulting residual stress quickly ap-
proaches or exceeds the tensile
strength of the base metal. If the re-
sultant (stress) exceeds the tensile
strength of the base metal, the poten-
tial for developing a crack increases.
The orientation of the crack will be
perpendicular to the resultant.
A basic understanding of the terminology and the
different heat treatments can be useful to the CWI. It is
essential for the CWI to recognize the differences in the
steels provided by vendors.
Thermal stress relief does not elimi-
nate residual stress, it simply reduces
it to something that can be tolerated.
Stress relief is also a benefit when
the component has to be machined to
a tight tolerance. When the part has
not been stress relieved after welding,
the machining operation removes met-
al from the exposed surfaces and alters
the stress field. As the stress field
changes, the workpiece moves and it is
very difficult to hold the required
tolerances.
28 Inspection Trends / November 2017
Fig. 1 — Modified iron–iron carbide diagram.
Both tempering and thermal stress
relief are considered to be subcritical
heat treatments because the operations
are performed at temperatures below
1335°F, the lower temperature of trans-
formation (A1). Thus, there is no danger
of the base metal becoming harder re-
gardless of the cooling rate. Indeed, if
the steel is heated to a temperature be-
low the A1, cooling it with cold air or
cold water will not make the steel
harder. Heating the steel to tempera-
tures above the A3 temperatures can in-
crease hardness and strength of the
steel if it is cooled quickly (quenched).
Cooling rates, regardless of the thermal
heat treatment, must be controlled to
mitigate the possibility of thermal gra-
dients between thin and thick parts of
the component. Thermal gradients ( T)
as low as 220°F can produce residual
stresses on the same order of magni-
tude as the yield strength of the base
metal, which can distort the part. Uni-
form cooling is critical to a successful
heat treatment.
An increase in temperature slight-
ly above the A3 line will allow the car-
bon to dissolve into the face centered
cubic iron. If the temperature is per-
mitted to exceed the A3 temperature,
the steel is austenitized. All the carbon
goes into solution, with the iron pro-
ducing a microstructure that is face-
centered cubic, soft, and ductile. The
strength is minimal and the material is
easily worked. The residual stress is
nonexistent because the strength of
the steel is extremely low.
Notice in Fig. 1 that the line
slightly below the temperature ranges
identified for annealing and normaliz-
ing is sloped downward toward the
right. As the carbon content of the
steel increases, the temperature of
austenitization decreases to 1335°F
when the carbon content is exactly
0.76%. If the steel is heated and al-
lowed to “soak” above the minimum
austenitizing temperature, all the car-
bides are dissolved and (the carbon)
goes into solution in the face-centered
cubic iron. If the steel containing ex-
actly 0.76% carbon is allowed to cool
very slowly, the austenite decomposes
and the carbon comes out of solution
and forms pearlite, a composite con-
sisting of a ferrite matrix and laths of
cementite (Fe3C). If the austenitized
steel is quenched and no time is al-
lowed for the carbon to diffuse, the
austenite decomposes into martensite

Fig. 2 — Vector analysis of longitudinal residual stresses in intersecting welds.
(it said to be a diffusionless decompo-
sition of austenite). At lower carbon
content, the temperature required for
the carbon to go into solution is high-
er. With no carbon, ferrite (body-
centered cubic iron) does not trans-
form into face-centered cubic austen-
ite until the temperature exceeds
1673°F. As mentioned, the line defin-
ing A3 slopes downward from the left
vertical axis at 1673° to 1335°F where
the carbon content is exactly 0.76%.
The line drawn vertically up from the
horizontal axis where the carbon is
equal to 0.76% is called the eutectoid.
The eutectoid is the lowest tem-
perature at which the steel will trans-
form into austenite. If cooled slowly,
all the austenite containing exactly
0.76% carbon will decompose into
pearlite. As the carbon content de-
creases, less pearlite is formed and
more ferrite is formed. As the carbon
is reduced (moving toward the left
axis) until there is no carbon available
to go into solution, ferrite is the only
microstructure formed (okay, that is a
little white lie; ferrite at room temper-
ature will tolerate as much as 0.005%
carbon. Austenite at 1335°F will toler-
ate as much as 2.41% carbon. 0.005%
carbon is the same as no carbon in my
world).
Annealing
Annealing involves heating the
steel above the A3 temperature, hold-
ing at that temperature for several
hours to allow all the carbides (Fe3C)
to decompose and allowing the carbon
to go into solution with the iron. The
austenitized steel is furnace-cooled
very slowly to ensure the carbon is
permitted sufficient time to diffuse
through the lattice to form a composi-
tion of coarse ferrite and pearlite. To
reiterate, the amount of pearlite
formed is a function of how much car-
bon was in the steel to begin with. This
eliminates residual stress, provides
steel with the maximum ductility, low-
est hardness, and lowest strength. An-
nealing is typically performed prior to
deep drawing operations, cold rolling,
and machining where it is desirable to
start with a material that is very soft
and ductile.
Normalizing
Normalizing is performed at a
temperature slightly higher than the
annealing temperature. As indicated by
Fig. 1, the steel is austenitized and all
the carbides dissolved, allowing the
carbon to go into solution with the
face-centered iron. The temperature is
maintained long enough to ensure the
carbon is fully dispersed and in solu-
tion with the face-centered iron. The
cooling rate is faster than that of an-
nealing. Normalizing typically employs
cooling in still air after being held at
the austenitizing temperature. The
grain structure is somewhat refined in
comparison to the coarse grain associ-
ated with a full annealing operation.
November 2017 / Inspection Trends
The strength is slightly higher than an-
nealed steel, the hardness is slightly
higher, and the ferrite and pearlite is
uniformly distributed. Faster cooling
typically results in fine pearlite, which
is harder and stronger than the coarse-
grained pearlite obtained by annealing.
A basic understanding of the ter-
minology and the different heat treat-
ments can be useful to the CWI. It is
essential for the CWI to recognize the
differences in the steels provided by
vendors. A steel produced to an ASTM
specification is typically hot rolled and
air cooled (for example, normalized).
However, there are cases where the
higher strength steels are quenched
and tempered to produce improved
strength, but with the accompanying
high hardness and lower ductility.
Steel ordered to an AISI specification
can be provided in the hot or cold
rolled, forged, normalized, or annealed
condition. The specific heat treatment
is not controlled by the material speci-
fication. Where the final heat treat-
ment of the steel is not specified, the
mechanical properties of AISI steels
cannot be assured. For that reason,
most fabrication standards will not al-
low the use of AISI steels for primary
load carrying members unless the
manufacturer performs additional op-
erations that may include subsequent
heat treatment that will control the
mechanical properties.
The CWI must recognize that dif-
ferent metals respond to heat treat-
ments differently. The heat treatment
used to harden steel will soften (an-
neal) copper. Don’t assume that the
metal you are working with will re-
spond to heat treatment the same way
steel does. We preheat carbon steel to
reduce the potential for cracking. One
should not preheat certain aluminum
alloys to the same high temperature
one would use with steel of the same
thickness, but those are subjects for
future articles.
ALBERT J. MOORE JR.
amoore999@comcast.net is vice
president, Marion Testing & Inspection,
Canton, Conn. He is an AWS Senior
Certified Welding Inspector and an ASNT
NDT Level III. He is also a member of the
AWS Certification Committee and the
Committee on Methods of Inspection of
Welds.
29