What is the history of heat treatment technology?
Heat treatment technology has also developed as a result of better equipment and process control. Heat treatment furnaces with protective atmospheres were developed and introduced in the 1950s and vacuum furnaces in the 1970s.
What is heat treating?
Heat treating. Heat treatments are also used in the manufacture of many other materials, such as glass. Heat treatment involves the use of heating or chilling, normally to extreme temperatures, to achieve a desired result such as hardening or softening of a material. Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening,...
What is the first step in the heat treatment process?
The first step in most of the heat treatments is the heating of steel to a predetermined temperature, generally the austenitising temperature which depends on (a) the composition of the steel, (b) the heat treatment to be given to the steel like annealing, normalising or hardening, etc.
What is the history of thermal processing?
An article entitled “Notes on the Evolution of Ferrous Metallurgy,” by Dr. Allan Bates in the October 1938 issue, gives us some insight into the early days of thermal-processing history. Actual excerpts follow: “In the present sense of the term, the ‘steel industry’ began around the 1870s.

When was heat treatment invented?
Our results suggest that the invention of heat treatment occurred sometime between 130 ka and 200–400 ka, as it is still absent in the earlier assemblage but fully mastered and well-integrated in the recent one.
Who discovered heat-treating?
A. William of Germany, who discovered in 1906 that aluminium alloys containing copper could be hardened by quenching, and aging and this was the starting point for the development of duralumin and in-numerable other heat treatable alloys, particularly non-ferrous alloys. In 1919-20, R.
When did metallurgy start?
The process appears to have been invented by the Hittites in about 1200 BC, beginning the Iron Age. The secret of extracting and working iron was a key factor in the success of the Philistines. Historical developments in ferrous metallurgy can be found in a wide variety of past cultures and civilizations.
Which is the first stage of heat treatment process?
HeatingHeating: Heating is the first stage in a heat-treating process. It is done to change the structure of alloys when heated to some specific temperature. The alloy is said to be at room temperature either by a solid solution, a mechanical mixture, or a combination of both.
When was induction hardening invented?
1831Induction heating was first developed and introduced in its earliest form in 1831 by Michael Faraday. He could prove that an electromotive force could be created by winding two copper coils around a magnetic core while turning one of the windings on and off which affected the other one.
Why do we heat treat metals?
Heat treating can improve wear resistance by hardening the material. Metals (including steel, titanium, inconel, and some copper alloys) can be hardened either on the surface (case hardening) or all the way through (through hardening), to make the material stronger, tougher, more durable and more resistant to wear.
When did humans begin working with metals?
approximately 5000 years BCAncient man first found and began using Native Metals approximately 5000 years BC. Over the next 2000 years, leading up to the Bronze age, man mastered how to find, manipulate and use these native metals in better ways and in a range of applications. Nuggets of gold were often the easiest to find and use.
When did humans start melting iron?
The first major impact of iron on human civilization was when the Hittites began smelting iron around 1500 BCE. Iron is smelted from its ores at around 1200°C and melts at 1528°C.
When did humans start using metal tools?
The Iron Age was a period in human history that started between 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C., depending on the region, and followed the Stone Age and Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel.
What is aging heat treatment?
The heat treatment aging process involves elevating the temperature of an alloy to change its properties. The process accelerates changes in an alloy's properties through a series of heat treatments.
What happened to the steel when heated?
Metal expands when heated. Length, surface area and volume will increase with temperature. The scientific term for this is thermal expansion. The degree of thermal expansion varies with different types of metal.
What are the five basic heat treatment process?
Heat treatment techniques include annealing, case hardening, precipitation strengthening, tempering, carburizing, normalizing and quenching.
Why is heat treatment called an arrest?
This temperature is referred to as an "arrest" because at the A temperature the metal experiences a period of hysteresis.
What is the process of heating something to alter it?
Process of heating something to alter it. Heat treating furnace at 1,800 °F (980 °C) Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are also used in the ...
How much carbon is in hypoeutectoid steel?
A hypoeutectoid steel contains less than 0.77% carbon. Upon cooling a hypoeutectoid steel from the austenite transformation temperature, small islands of proeutectoid-ferrite will form. These will continue to grow and the carbon will recede until the eutectoid concentration in the rest of the steel is reached.
Why are metals annealed?
Most non-ferrous alloys that are heat-treatable are also annealed to relieve the hardness of cold working.
Does cooling a metal cause precipitation?
Cooling a metal will usually suppress the precipitation to a much lower temperature. Austenite, for example, usually only exists above the upper critical temperature. However, if the austenite is cooled quickly enough, the transformation may be suppressed for hundreds of degrees below the lower critical temperature.
The Legend of Copper Mounds of the New World
Who made these copper mounds, and why were they made? Unfortunately, some of this information is prehistoric, but history, legend and archaeology reveal some of the mystery that may involve New World copper trade even before its “discovery.”
History of Blacksmithing
There’s something compelling about blacksmithing. It’s probably about mastering the metal by hammering red-hot iron. While an ancient art, blacksmithing is alive and well in the decorative blacksmithing of the 21st century. How did it begin, and what beauty has been wrought over the years?
What is Damascus steel?
Damascus steel is beautiful but mysterious. It has been used for making swords and knives for centuries. Pattern welding is used today to re-create the beauty. Let’s unwrap the mystery a bit and find out if it really originated in Damascus and what secrets vanadium and hot shortness hold.
Colonial Iron Furnace – Seed of the Industrial Age
Colonial iron-works connect today’s foundry operations to the past. Learning what it took to make a ton of iron in colonial Virginia is an interesting trip back in time. Your time machine awaits.
History of the Liberty Bell
Did you know the Liberty Bell was originally cast in London? It cracked on the first chime. The Independence Hall bell we know and love was recast and re-alloyed in Philadelphia using the original bell as raw material. As we know, its fate was ultimately the same as the original.
Paul Revere: The Life and Work as a Foundryman Metallurgist
April 18 marks the anniversary of that famous midnight ride of Paul Revere. But did you know that the famous silversmith blazed a trail for many of us in the thermal-processing industry?
Gunsmithing: Forging the Barrel
There’s art and lots of history in forging gun barrels. Putting a gun, like the American longrifle, together involves more thermal processing than you might imagine. And, like the title, did you know that a number of common phrases came from gunsmithing or gun-firing practice?
What were the secrets of heat treatment?
The secrets of heat treatment of steels which produced desired superior properties, were credited to have been conferred to steels by supernatural powers and were kept closed secrets , passed on from one generation to another till the mid of 19th century, when art started to develop as science.
What is the classical alloy for heat treatment?
The classical alloy for heat treatment is, of course medium and high carbon steel. From the time of its discovery, steel has been regularly subjected to heat treatment of one form or another.
What happens to steel after heat treatment?
This can be explained in a way that particular steel after a particular heat treatment develops a particular microstructure which produces particular physical and mechanical properties in that steel. If the heat treatment cycle is changed, a different microstructure with ensuing different physical and mechanical shall be obtained in that steel.
Who discovered that aluminum alloys could be hardened by quenching and aging?
It was left to Mr. A. William of Germany, who discovered in 1906 that aluminium alloys containing copper could be hardened by quenching, and aging and this was the starting point for the development of duralumin and in-numerable other heat treatable alloys, particularly non-ferrous alloys.
How are noble metals hardened?
Alloys of noble metals can be hardened by the heat treatment called order-hardening in which domain structure on fine scale is produced. In most of the methods of heat treatment of metals and alloys, the intermediate non-equilibrium precipitates, or zones of clustered solutes, or vacancies are the transitory structures.
Who was the first person to study metal heat treatment?
Although unaware of the relevance of his discovery in metal treatment, it was Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician, physicist, writer, inventor and religious philosopher whose law would have a significant impact on the heat treatment of metal. He proposed that pressure applied to a confined fluid at any point is transmitted undiminished through the fluid in all directions and acts upon every part of the confining vessel at right angles to its interior surface and equally upon equal areas.
What is Bodycote heat treatment?
Bodycote is at the forefront of modern heat treatment and continues to collaborate with customers in developing materials to meet or exceed their application requirements. As a truly global provider of thermal processing services, Bodycote is able to offer a significant advantage to its customers.
Where did copper come from?
4000 BC - Early copper mining. The first European copper miners are believed to have come from the Balkan region. Digging with bone tools, they excavated huge quantities of copper ore from the Rudna Glava (Ore Head) in what is now present day Serbia.
Who were the first people to make steel?
The Haya people are believed to be the earliest inhabitants in Tanzania to practice metalworking and, incredibly, the first people to invent carbon steel. The Haya elders made furnaces out of mud and grass which, when burnt, created carbon to transform iron into steel; the process worked much the same as an open hearth furnace. Steel of this quality was not created in Europe until centuries later.
Who invented the Bessemer process?
Between 1850 and 1855, English inventor Sir Henry Bessemer took final credit for the creation of the Bessemer process with a patent. He stated that he had been trying to reduce the cost of steel for military weapons and ammunition when he had made the discovery. This was the first inexpensive mass-production of molten pig iron to steel prior to open hearth methods. The key was to blow air over molten iron to remove all impurities by oxidation. It made the production of steel fast and efficient and gave Bessemer a name in history.
What is the history of wound care?
History of wound care. The history of wound care spans from prehistory to modern medicine. Wounds naturally heal by themselves, but hunter-gatherers would have noticed several factors and certain herbal remedies would speed up or assist the process, especially if it was grievous.
What materials were used in the 1950s?
The advent in the 1950s of fibrous synthetics such as nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyvinyls provided new materials from which researchers and doctors in the field of wound care could explore better protecting of healing wounds and even accelerating the natural wound healing process.
What was the impact of the 1990s on wound dressing?
In the 1990s, improvements in composite and hybrid polymers expanded the range of materials available for wound dressing. Grafting and biotechnology have produced usable and useful protective covering of actual human skin generated through cloning procedures.
What did the Greeks use to cleanse wounds?
They used wine along with boiled water and vinegar to cleanse wounds. The Greeks, specifically Hippocrates (430–377 BC), were also the first to establish the four cardinal signs of inflammation: redness, swelling, heat and pain. Alcohol is still in use today as a wound cleanser largely as rubbing alcohol.
What is the use of alcohol in ancient medicine?
Various types of alcohol were also used in ancient medical practices. One of the first uses was by the Sumerians, who used beer as an antiseptic along with the dressing of wounds, using up to 19 different types of beer. Other ancient Mesopotamian cultures, including the Sumerians and Akkadians used wine with sesame infusions, which were "purified and pulverized" before application along with the many beers. Another peoples to take advantage of the cleansing properties of alcohol were the Greeks. They used wine along with boiled water and vinegar to cleanse wounds. The Greeks, specifically Hippocrates (430–377 BC), were also the first to establish the four cardinal signs of inflammation: redness, swelling, heat and pain. Alcohol is still in use today as a wound cleanser largely as rubbing alcohol. However the side effects can be skin cell death resulting in inflammation and itchiness at the site of application.
Who invented the gauze?
Building on the success of Lister's pretreated surgical gauze, Robert Wood Johnson I , co-founder of Johnson & Johnson, began in the 1890s producing gauze and wound dressings sterilized with dry heat, steam, and pressure.
Who was the first surgeon to differentiate between acute and chronic wounds?
The Greeks also acknowledged the importance of wound closure, and were the first to differentiate between acute and chronic wounds, calling them "fresh" and "non-healing", respectively. Galen of Pergamum, a Greek surgeon who served Roman gladiators circa 120–201 A.D., made many contributions to the field of wound care.

History Revisited
World War I
- The following decade of the 1910s brought more developments, such as the use of X-ray diffraction for determination of crystal structure in 1912. Also significant during this time was the development, at Princeton University, of the induction-melting process in 1915. As we see from the pages of Industrial Heatingthroughout the years, events of the ...
The Roaring Twenties
- Following WWI, the 1920s began with a renewed hope and enthusiasm for technological development but ended with a depression that would last many years. In 1923, Prof. Willibald Trinks of the Carnegie Institute of Technology published his book Industrial Furnaces, bringing much attention to the industrial heating industry. In 1924, a new electric vacuum furnace was re…
It's Depressing
- The decade of the 1930s resulted in significant technological advances in spite of the economic disadvantages. The growth of the automotive and aircraft industries led to advancements such as the installation of the largest continuous electric roller-hearth furnace in the world (at that time), measuring 325 feet long for bright normalizing of automotive body stock. Centrifugal casting an…
World War II
- By the start of World War II, many automated continuous electric furnaces with accurate time and temperature control were available in mesh-belt conveyor, plate conveyor, roller hearth, pusher, rotary hearth, monorail conveyor and rotary-drum types, with ratings varying from a few kilowatts to 2,000 kilowatts. New fibrous ceramic products such as board and blanket were being introdu…