Surface Treating of Ohio

Age Hardening

Age hardening, also called precipitation hardening, is a heat treatment technique used to increase the yield strength of malleable materials, including most structural alloys of aluminium, magnesium, nickel and titanium, and some stainless steels. It relies on changes in solid solubility with temperature to produce fine particles of an impurity phase, which impede the movement of dislocations, or defects in a crystal’s lattice. Since dislocations are often the dominant carriers of plasticity, this serves to harden the material. The impurities play the same role as the particle substances in particle-reinforced composite materials. Just as the formation of ice in air can produce clouds, snow, or hail, depending upon the thermal history of a given portion of the atmosphere, precipitation in solids can produce many different sizes of particles, which have radically different properties. Unlike ordinary tempering, alloys must be kept at elevated temperature for hours to allow precipitation to take place. This time delay is called aging.

Note that two different heat treatments involving precipitates can alter the strength of a material: solution heat treating and precipitation heat treating. Solution heat treating involves formation of a single-phase solid solution via quenching and leaves a material softer. Precipitation heat treating involves the addition of impurity particles to increase a material’s strength. Precipitation hardening via precipitation heat treatment is the main topic of discussion in this article.

Kinetics versus thermodynamics
This technique exploits the phenomenon of supersaturation, and involves careful balancing of the driving force for precipitation and the thermal activation energy available for both desirable and undesirable processes.

Nucleation occurs at a relatively high temperature (often just below the solubility limit) so that the kinetic barrier of surface energy can be more easily overcome and the maximum number of precipitate particles can form. These particles are then allowed to grow at lower temperature in a process called aging. This is carried out under conditions of low solubility so that thermodynamics drive a greater total volume of precipitate formation.

Diffusion’s exponential dependence upon temperature makes precipitation strengthening, like all heat treatments, a fairly delicate process. Too little diffusion (under aging), and the particles will be too small to impede dislocations effectively; too much (over aging), and they will be too large and dispersed to interact with the majority of dislocations.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_hardening

At Surface Treating of Ohio we specialize in gas nitriding.

We operate with Nitride Pit Furnaces which use Ammonia Gas (NH3) to achieve case depths and surface hardness.

Surface Treating of Ohio also offers services in Quench and Temper, Carburize and Harden, Age Hardening and Sand Blasting.

For your assurance, certifications and furnace charts containing times and temperatures of process cycles can be provided to you.

Please feel free to Contact Us!

Surface Treating of Ohio Inc.
38401 Apollo Parkway
Willoughby, Ohio 44094

Phone and Fax:440-951-3945
E-mail: surfacetreat@joimail.com