ASTM/ASME Steel Metallurgy & Heat Treatment
Online Course with e-Instructor Support
Course Description
This 2-day course is designed for the purchaser, manufacturer, fabricator, supplier, and others to learn the basics of steel metallurgy and heat treatment to improve your ability to correctly:
- read, write, and review a steel product specification and purchase order,
- based on ASTM/ASME Steel Standards,
- including the basics of preparing or reviewing their material test reports (MTR) to evaluate the metallurgy (chemical composition) and heat treatment effects on the mechanical properties for product acceptance or rejection.
These goals are achieved by studying Connecting-the-Standards© Examples covering ASTM/ASME specifications, test methods, practices, and terminology standards. It is suggested that the ASTM/ASME Carbon & Alloy Steel Specifications & Material Test Reports course should be taken in advance of this course to learn "the basics" of the subject matter.
Who Should Attend
This course is designed for all personnel involved with steels and particularly ASTM/ASME Steel Standards, such as, engineers, inspectors, QA/QC coordinators, NDE examiners, purchasers, inventory control personnel, tradespeople, manufacturing, fabricating and repair companies, engineering procurement companies, construction companies, and others working in most industries that use steel, including: civil construction (buildings, bridges), pressure equipment, ship building, water treatment, pipelines, oil and gas industries (oilfield, upgraders, refineries, etc.), chemical plants, petroleum refining, petrochemical plants, power plants, pulp and paper plants, fertilizer plants, and many others.
Learning Outcomes [+]
After completing this course, you will be able to:
- correctly identifying steel phases and microstructures in carbon and alloy steels as defined and used in ASTM/ASME steel standards;
- recognizing the different types of steel heat treatments as specified ASTM/ASME steel standards, their functions, terminology, and requirements;
- identifying all referenced ASTM/ASME steel standards required to be addressed when specifying heat treatment and any additional requirements for mechanical properties;
- associating each metallurgical condition and heat treatment requirements in ASTM/ASME steel product specification and its general requirements specification;
- navigating ASTM/ASME steel standards to identify mandatory, nonmandatory, and purchaser selected supplementary or additional heat treatment requirements.
- distinguishing how and why ASTM/ASME steel standards differ metallurgical condition and heat treatment with varying product forms (e.g., plate, sheet, strip, pipe, shapes, forgings, etc.);
- determining the roles of chemical elements in carbon and alloy steels and their effects on metallurgical condition and heat treatment;
- determining when grain size should be addressed and distinguishing the difference between grain size number and grain size practice;
- identifying when grain size is:
- required in ASTM/ASME steel standards,
- not required, but should be specified,
- how to measure grain size, and
- how to obtain a specified grain size through heat treatment
- determining why the anisotropic (grain) behavior of steels affect mechanical testing requirements specified in ASTM A370 for mechanical testing of steel products;
- specifying appropriate heat treatment to achieve the specified mechanical properties of steels to design for anisotropic behavior;
- analyzing a material test report for heat treatment and metallurgical requirements and their effects on the mechanical properties for product acceptance or rejection compliance with an ASTM steel specification, written product specification for an specific application, and purchase order.
Course Outline [+]
- What are crystal structures and how are they important to steel metallurgy and heat treatment?
- What are steel grains and grain boundaries?
- How and why does the chemical diffusion process work in steel heat treatment?
- How is carbon dissolved in steel and controlled through heat treatment?
- How and why does the allotropy of iron affect the metallurgy, heat treatment, and mechanical properties of steel?
- How and why are steel phases and microstructures involved with heat treatment?
- ferrite, austenite, iron carbide (cementite), pearlite, martensite, bainite
- Why is the iron-iron carbide phase diagram called the “Map of Steel Heat Treatment”?:
- lower Transformation Temperature (A1)
- upper Transformation Temperature (A3)
- between Lower and Upper Transformation Temperature
- Curie temperature (A2)
- alpha and delta ferrite phases
- What happens metallurgically when steel is cooled quickly by quenching?
- hardenability of steel
- bainite and martensite formation
- How and why are steels commercially heat treated and correctly written in a steel specification and purchased order?
- austenitizing
- annealing
- normalizing, normalizing and tempering
- quench and tempering, double tempering
- controlling steel mechanical properties through heat treatment
- How and why is grain size controlled through heat treatment?
- What is the difference between a grain size number and grain size practice;
- How and why is grain size measured and specified in ASTM/ASME steel standards and correctly written in a steel specification and purchased order?
- Which mechanical properties of steels are affected by grain size?
- How and why to specify fine or coarse grain size and correctly write them in a steel specification and purchased order?
- How and why does the anisotropic behavior in steels affect mechanical properties?
- What are the anisotropic requirements in ASTM A370 for mechanical testing of steel products
- How and why are anisotropic requirements addressed through heat treatment and written in a steel specification and purchased order?
Learning Assessment
Learning will be self-assessed through participation in discussions throughout the training course.
