Austenitization of Steels

Abstract

Austenitization is the heat treatment of steel in the austenite region, and it is conducted for two reasons. One is to obtain austenite as a necessary precursor for heat treatment, and this is the main emphasis of this chapter. The other is to chemically homogenize steel, so that concentration gradients formed during solidification upon casting are minimized. The chapter provides a brief examination of austenitization for chemical homogenization, which deals with austenitizing prior to heat treating. The topics covered are dendritic segregation in steels, austenitization to remove coring, ingot segregation, grain growth behavior, formation of austenite, austenite grain size, heating in the austenite region, and practical austenitizing temperatures.