Metallurgy of Induction Hardening of Steel

This article focuses on induction hardening process for heat treating operations specifically designed to result in proper microstructure/property combinations in either localized or in the final parts. It briefly reviews the heat treating basics for conventional heat treating operations of steels with iron-carbon phase and transformation diagrams. The article provides a summary of the important temperatures, definitions, and microstructural constituents associated with heat-treated steels. Basic transformation characteristics of heat-treated steels are reviewed. The article also discusses the various aspects of steel heat treatment by induction processing, and concludes with a description of steel alloys for induction processing.