What is heat treating?
Abbreviation: HT
Related Terms
Annealing
Annealing is a heat treatment process that softens metal by heating it to a specific temperature and slowly cooling it. It relieves internal stress and improves ductility for forming.
Hardening and Tempering(H&T)
Hardening heats steel above its critical temperature and quenches it rapidly to increase hardness. Tempering then reheats it at a lower temperature to reduce brittleness while retaining strength.
Normalizing
Normalizing is a heat treatment that heats steel above its critical temperature and air-cools it to produce a uniform, fine-grained microstructure. It relieves stress and improves machinability.
Brinell / Rockwell Hardness(HB / HRC)
Brinell (HB) and Rockwell (HRC) are scales for measuring metal hardness by indentation. HRC is common for tool steels and knife steels; HB is used for structural and softer metals.