The heat treatment of carbon steel pipe

The performance of steel material mainly refers on mechanical properties, physical properties, and process performance. Heat treatment will bring different metallurgical structure and corresponding performance for the steel pipe, so could be better applied in different industrial or the oil gas services.

There are two methods to improve the properties of steel material. One method is to adjust the chemical composition, named alloying method. The other method is heat treatment. In the field of modern industrial technology, heat treatment improve steel pipe performance at dominate position.

Improving the performance of the steel is two ways, First, adjusting the chemical composition of the steel alloying; the other is the heat treatment, heat treatment and shaping deformation combination of approaches. In the field of modern industrial technology, heat treatment to improve the performance of the steel still occupy a dominant position. A wide range of steel pipe, and the appropriate standard for handling, the use of steel vary, sometimes according to their own needs but also to add additional conditions. In the standard, as one of the terms of delivery performance must meet the requirements. The performance of the steel pipes mainly refers to the mechanical properties, physical properties, the use of performance and process performance. Heat treatment by heating, insulation and cooling the steel to obtain the microstructure and corresponding to a variety of performance to meet product standards and requirements of users.

Reasonable Cooling Method

The effect of the cooling process on the deformation of the metal after quenching is also an important cause of deformation. Hot oil quenching is less than quenching of cold oil and is generally controlled at 100±20 °C. The cooling capacity of the oil is also critical to deformation. Both the quenching mode and the speed affect the deformation. The faster the metal heat treatment, cooling rate, the more uneven the cooling, the greater the stress generated, and the greater the deformation of the mold.

The heat treatment process is an important means to obtain excellent properties of various metal materials. In many practical applications, the rational selection of materials and various forming processes can not meet the mechanical, physical and chemical properties required for metal workpieces. At this time, the heat treatment process is indispensable.

However, in addition to the positive effect of heat treatment process, deformation will more or less inevitably occur during the process, which is needed to be avoided in machining. Two coexist and need to be avoided. Relationships can only be controlled by the corresponding method as much as possible to minimize the amount of deformation.

Following are 7 ways to control deformation of heat treatment：

Temperature Measurement and Control

There are many forms of heat treatment in practical applications in steel mills, but their basic processes are all thermal processes, which are composed of 3 stages of heating, heat preservation and cooling. The entire process can be described by several parameters such as heating rate, heating temperature, holding time, cooling rate and heat treatment cycle. In the heat treatment process, various heating furnaces are used, and metal heat treatment is performed in these heating furnaces (such as annealing, quenching, tempering, chemical heat treatment, carburizing, ammonia, aluminizing, chromizing or Dehydrogenation, deoxygenation, etc.). Therefore, temperature measurement in furnace becomes an important process parameter measurement of heat treatment. Temperature is an important part of every heat treatment process specification. If temperature measurement is not accurate, heat treatment process specification will not be properly implemented, resulting in a decline in product quality or even scrap. So temperature measurement and control is the key to heat treatment process and a key factor affecting the deformation.

Temperature Controlled Normalizing or thermal annealing

If normalizing hardness is too high, mixed crystals, a large amount of sorbite or Wei’s structure will increase deformation of inner hole, so the forgings should be treated by temperature-controlled normalizing or isothermal annealing. Normalizing, annealing, quenching and tempering before quenching will have a certain influence on the final deformation, which directly affects the change of metal structure. Practice has proved that use of austempering in normalizing can effectively make the metal structure tend to be uniform, so as to control amount of deformation.

Reasonable Cooling Method

The effect of the cooling process on the deformation of the metal after quenching is also an important cause of deformation. Hot oil quenching is less than quenching of cold oil and is generally controlled at 100±20 °C. The cooling capacity of the oil is also critical to deformation. Both the quenching mode and the speed affect the deformation. The faster the metal heat treatment, cooling rate, the more uneven the cooling, the greater the stress generated, and the greater the deformation of the mold. Pre-cooling can be used as much as possible under the premise of ensuring the hardness requirement of the mold; using graded cooling quenching can significantly reduce the thermal stress and microstructure stress generated during quenching of metal, and is an effective method for reducing the deformation of some complex shapes; for some special workpieces with higher precision requirements, austempering can significantly reduce deformation.

Reasonable Part Structure

After the metal is heat treated, during the cooling process, the thin portion is cooled faster than thick portion. In order to meet the actual production needs, workpiece thickness should be minimized, and the cross-section should be uniform to reduce distortion and cracking tendency of the transition zone due to stress concentration; the workpiece should keep the symmetry of the structure and material composition and structure as much as possible to reduce distortion caused by uneven cooling; the workpiece should avoid sharp edges and corners, grooves, etc., and there should be rounded corner transitions at the thick and thin junctions and steps of the workpiece; minimize the asymmetry of the holes and the groove structure on the workpiece; Parts are processed by a reserved amount.

Reasonable Clamping Method and Fixture

Objective to make the workpiece heating and cooling evenly, to reduce the uneven thermal stress, uneven tissue stress, to reduce the deformation, to change the clamping method, the disk parts are perpendicular to the oil surface, the shaft parts are installed vertically, the compensation washer is used, and the support washer is used. , superimposed washers, etc., splined hole parts can be used for carburizing mandrels.

Mechanical Processing

When the heat treatment is the final step of the workpiece processing process, the allowable value of the heat treatment distortion should meet the workpiece size specified on the drawing, and the distortion variable should be determined according to the processing size of the previous process. For this reason, the pre-correction of the dimensions should be carried out according to the distortion law of the workpiece before the heat treatment, so that the heat treatment distortion is just within the acceptable range. When the heat treatment is an intermediate process, the machining allowance before the heat treatment shall be regarded as the sum of the machining allowance and the heat treatment distortion. Generally, the machining allowance is easy to determine, and the heat treatment is more complicated due to the influencing factors, so that sufficient machining allowance is left for the machining, and the rest can be used as the heat treatment to allow the distortion. After heat treatment, it is processed according to the deformation law of the workpiece, and the anti-deformation and shrinkage end pre-expansion holes are applied to improve the qualification rate after quenching.

Using the Right Medium

Under the premise of ensuring the same hardness requirements, oily medium should be used as much as possible. Experiments and practice prove that under the premise of no difference in other conditions, the cooling rate of oily medium is slower, while the cooling rate of aqueous medium is relatively faster. Moreover, compared with the oily medium, the change of water temperature has a great influence on the cooling characteristics of the aqueous medium. Under the same heat treatment conditions, the deformation of the oil medium after quenching with respect to the aqueous medium is relatively small.