Normalizing
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Normalizing
Normalizing aims to give the material a uniform and fine-grained structure. The process is used to obtain a predictable microstructure and an assurance of the material’s mechanical properties.
Benefits of Normalizing
After forging, hot rolling or casting a material’s microstructure is often non homogeneous consisting of large grains, and unwanted structural components such as bainite and carbides. Such microstructure has a negative impact on the material’s mechanical properties as well as on the machinability. Through normalising, the material can obtain a more fine-grained homogeneous structure with predictable properties and machinability.
Applications
Normalization is mainly used on carbon and low alloyed steels to normalise the structure after forging, hot rolling or casting. The hardness obtained after normalising depends on the steel chemical analysis and the cooling speed used.
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Process
Heating
During heating, the material is heated to a temperature approximately equivalent to the austenitic temperature. At this temperature new austenitic grains are formed. The austenitic grains are much smaller than the previous ferritic grains.
Cooling
After heating and a short soaking time the components are cooled freely in air (gas). During cooling, new ferritic grains are formed with a further refined grain size. In some cases, both heating and cooling take place under protective gas to avoid oxidation and decarburisation.