Hardening
Hardening is a metallurgical process used to increase the hardness of a metal. Hardness is a material's resistance to permanent deformation, such as bending, scratching, or denting. Metals are hardened by manipulating their internal crystalline structure through heat treatment processes.
There are several different metal hardening techniques, but they all involve the following general step.
- Heating the metal
- Rapid cooling
Tempering (optional)
Annealing Tempering Quenching Normalization Stress Relieving
