Steels containing 0.

20% C or less usually receive no treatment subsequent to

normalizing. However, medium-carbon or high-carbon steels are often tempered after
normalizing to obtain specific properties such as a lower hardness for straightening,
cold working, or machining. Whether tempering is desirable depends on specific
property requirements and not on carbon content and section size requirements. Table
3 presents typical mechanical properties of selected carbon and alloy steels in the hotrolled, normalized, and annealed conditions. Because of pearlite lamellae and spacing,
a lowcarbon or medium-carbon steel of thin section may be harder after normalizing
than a high-carbon steel of large section size subjected to the same treatment.
In the wire industry, process annealing is used as an intermediate treatment between the drawing of wire
to a size slightly
larger than the desired finished size and the drawing of a light reduction to the finished size. Wire thus
made is known as
annealed in process wire. Process annealing is used also in the production of wire sufficiently soft for
severe upsetting
and to permit drawing the smaller sizes of low-carbon and medium-carbon steel wire that cannot be
drawn to the desired
small size directly from the hot-rolled rod. Process
Medium-carbon steels are much more difficult to fully spheroidize than are high-carbon steels such as
1095 and 52100. In
the absence of excess carbides to nucleate and promote the spheroidizing reaction, it is more difficult to
achieve complete
freedom from pearlite in practical heat-treating cycles.
Austempering consists of rapidly cooling the metal part from the austenitizing temperature to about

230 to 400 C (450

to 750 F) (depending on the transformation characteristics of the particular steel involved), holding at a
constant
temperature to allow isothermal transformation, followed by air cooling.
Austempering is applicable to most medium-carbon steels and alloy steels. Low-alloy steels are usually
restricted to 9.5
mm ( 3
8

in.) or thinner sections, while more hardenable steels can be austempered in sections up to 50 mm (2 in.)
thick.
Molten salt baths are usually the most practical for austempering applications. Oils have been developed
that suffice in
some cases, but molten salts possess better heat-transfer properties and eliminate the fire hazard.
Induction surface hardening is applied mostly to hardenable grades of steel, although some carburized and
slow-cooled
parts are often reheated in selected areas by induction heating. Some typical induction surface hardened
steels are:
Medium-carbon

steels, such as 1030 and 1045, used for automotive drive shafts, gears, and so

forth
High-carbon steels, such as 1070, used for drill and rock bits, hand tools, and so forth
Alloy steels used for bearings, automotive valves, and machine-tool components