Chapter 11: Austenitization Available to Purchase

The first step in the hardening of steel is getting it hot enough to form austenite, from which martensite can form upon quenching. Not all steels have the same austenitization requirements, however. High-carbon wear-resistant steels, such as bearing and tool steels, require the presence of carbides during austenitization; plain carbon and low-alloy steels do not. This chapter describes the austenitization process used in each of the two cases, namely single-phase austenitization (the accepted method for plain carbon low-alloy steels) and two-phase austenitization (required for high-carbon steels). It also addresses process-specific issues, explaining how the presence of carbides (in the two-phase process) produces significant changes, and how homogenization and austenite grain growth influence the single-phase process.