Heat Transfer During Metal Quenching

Controlled heating followed by rapid cooling is a key step in many materials processing applications. This heat-treating process can make a material harder. That matters for cutting tools and for surfaces that must resist wear.

The rapid cooling stage is called quenching. It is often done by plac...

Quenching is a heat treatment commonly used to modify material properties such as hardness and ductility. During quenching and the complementary process of annealing, a material is heated and subsequently cooled. For quenching, the material is cooled very quickly in contrast to annealing where it is cooled gradually in a controlled fashion. The ...