What are the several classifications of nickel alloy heat treatment？

What is the heat treatment of nickel alloys?

Nickel alloys are usually divided into Hastelloy, Monel, Incoloy, Inconel, etc. In order to make parts made of these alloys achieve the required mechanical, physical and chemical properties during use, heat treatment is essential of. The heat treatment of metal materials uses methods such as heating, heat preservation and cooling to change the microstructure of the metal, which in turn affects the strength, hardness, toughness, and ductility of nickel alloys, and in turn affects the use of nickel alloys. Heat treatment is a special process in mechanical manufacturing and an important part of quality management.

Classification of nickel alloy heat treatment

The same nickel alloy material adopts different heat treatment processes and will have different properties. According to the different heating medium, heating temperature and cooling method, metal heat treatment can be roughly divided into the following categories:

1. Normalizing: a heat treatment process in which the alloy is heated to an appropriate temperature, kept for a certain period of time, and then released from the furnace and cooled uniformly in the air.

2. Annealing: a heat treatment process in which the alloy material is heated to an appropriate temperature for holding, and then slowly cooled in the furnace. Commonly used annealing includes stress relief annealing, complete annealing and spheroidizing annealing.

3. Quenching: After heating the metal material to a certain temperature, it is quickly cooled in water, oil or other inorganic salt solutions, organic aqueous solutions and other quenching media. The purpose of quenching is to improve hardness, strength and wear resistance, and it must be properly tempered after quenching.

4. Tempering: heat the quenched workpiece to an appropriate temperature below the critical point AC1 for a certain period of time, and then use a method that meets the requirements to cool it to obtain the required structure and performance of the heat treatment process

5. Solution heat treatment: heat the alloy to a high-temperature single-phase zone to maintain a constant temperature, so that the excess phase is fully dissolved into the solid solution, and then rapidly cooled to obtain a supersaturated solid solution heat treatment process

6. Aging: After solution heat treatment or cold plastic deformation, the performance of the alloy changes with time when it is placed at room temperature or kept slightly higher than room temperature.

7.Solid solution treatment: fully dissolve various phases in the alloy, strengthen solid solution and improve toughness and corrosion resistance, eliminate stress and soften, so as to continue processing and forming

8. Aging treatment: heat and keep warm at the temperature at which the strengthening phase is precipitated to make the strengthening phase precipitate and improve the strength

9. Carbonitriding: Carbonitriding is the process of simultaneously infiltrating carbon and nitrogen into the surface of the metal, also known as cyanidation. It is widely used for medium temperature gas carbonitriding and low temperature gas carbonitriding.

10. Quenching and tempering treatment: the heat treatment combining quenching and high temperature tempering is called quenching and tempering treatment. Quenching and tempering treatment is widely used in various important structural parts, especially those connecting rods, bolts, gears and shafts that work under alternating loads.

11. Brazing: a heat treatment process in which two workpieces are bonded together with a brazing filler metal

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