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In this video we cover hardening and tempering of steels as one of the most important heat treatment processes. Both hardening and tempering are divided into a total of 3 steps. First, the steel is austenitized, i.e. converted into the cubic face-centered austenite lattice so that the carbon becomes completely soluble in the gamma iron. Subsequent rapid cooling, known as quenching, takes the time for the carbon to diffuse out of the converted austenite lattice. The body-centered cubic unit cells of the ferrite (alpha iron) are expanded tetragonally. This creates a distorted lattice structure, which is also known as martensite. Martensite is very hard and is largely responsible for the increase in hardness and strength after quenching. The disadvantage is that martensite is very brittle, so the steel must then be heat treated again. To do this, the steel is heated to moderate temperatures in a third step. This process is called tempering. The martensite is then reduced somewhat by diffusion. This makes the steel tougher. If a high level of hardness is desired after tempering, the tempering temperature is chosen to be relatively low. This is called hardening - the steel is called hardened steel. If, on the other hand, a high level of toughness and high strength are desired, the tempering temperatures are chosen to be higher. This is called quenching and tempering - the steel is called tempered steel. 00:00 Annealing process 01:14 Process steps 02:37 Difference to the annealing processes 03:25 Heating (austenitizing) 05:19 Quenching 06:58 Martensite: hard but brittle 08:17 Tempering 09:50 Hardening or tempering (tempering diagram) 11:16 Stress-strain diagram 13:16 Prerequisites for martensite formation 16:07 Influence of alloying elements on martensite formation 18:41 Example