Normalizing

Heat Treatment

定義

A heat treatment in which steel is heated to above its upper critical temperature (Ac3) and then cooled in still air, producing a finer and more uniform microstructure than full annealing.

詳細説明

Normalizing is used to refine coarse grain structures caused by hot working or casting and to reduce compositional segregation. The air-cooling rate is faster than furnace cooling used in annealing, resulting in finer pearlite and slightly higher hardness and strength. It is a common conditioning treatment applied before final machining or subsequent heat treatments.