Overview of distortion and residual stress due to quench processing. Part I: factors affecting quench distortion

The most frequently cited heat treating problem is distortion control, particularly distortion control problems related to the non-uniform thermal gradients that typically accompany quench processing. The roles of various factors affecting quenching distortion and steel cracking including phase transformation behaviour of steel, retained austenite, quench media and process selection, quench severity, and the importance of optimising quench uniformity are discussed. Finally, quench process simulation methodology and the potentially enormous benefits that they provide in system and process design methodology are discussed, as is the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis in quench system design.