Heat & surface treatment

The term martensitic hardening refers to a heat treatment process consisting of austenitization and cooling under conditions that produce an increase in hardness through the more or less complete transformation of austenite into martensite.

Austenitization is the treatment step in which the workpiece is brought to the austenitizing temperature and full phase transformation and carbide dissolution change the matrix of the steel to austenitic.

Austenitization is followed by the cooling step. To ensure that the entire workpiece assumes a martensitic structure, the speed of the temperature drop must be greater than the critical cooling rate of the particular steel.

• Cooling can be carried out in a range of different media characterized by their cooling effects in the different temperature ranges.
• High strength
• Good strength and toughness after tempering