How inadequate heat treatment or complete lack thereof can cause component failures

Abstract This paper is a compilation of failure analysis case studies exploring the subject of inadequate heat treatment. As with other papers in this series, the presented failure cases are rather simple and may appear trivial to the experienced failure analyst. The authors can guarantee however, that minor heat treatment errors are committed easily and have a considerable damage potential which may entail heavy financial losses. Therefore, cases of inadequate heat treatment or a complete lack of necessary heat treatment belong by all means in the column Failure Analysis. The metallurgical subject of these failure cases are low-alloy hardenable steels without exception. Common heat treatment processes such as induction hardening, case hardening, nitriding as well as through-hardening and tempering will be touched upon.