MEE4168 HEAT TREATMENT OF METALS

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the heat treatment processes
• Understand the effects of various heat treatment processes on the component's properties.
• Understand the relationship between structure of steel and its mechanical proper­ties

Course objective

• Primary objective is to present the basic fundamentals of materials science and engineering.
• Expose the students to different classes of materials, their properties, structures and imperfections present in them.
• Help understand the subject with ease by presenting the content in a simplified and logical sequence at a level appropriate for students.
• Aid the teaching learning process through relevant illustrations, animations and web content and practical examples.
• Highlight important concepts for each topic covered in the subject
• Provide opportunity of self-evaluation on the understanding of the subject matter.

Indicative content

• Heat treatment: General principles, properties and microstructure, normalizing, annealing, hardening, tempering.
• Microstructure and mechanical properties: constitution of steel, effect of alloying elements and heat treatment, transformation temperatures. 
• Austenite and its transformation and classification of steels: relationship between structure of steel and its mechanical properties, two basic methods of controlling structure.
• Annealing and normalizing of steel: the annealing of steel, the procedures for controlling structure, problems of scaling, decarburization, normalizing. Hardening steels and tempering processes. Surface and case hardening processes.
• Heat treatment of tool steels; water hardening, shock resisting, non-deforming, hot work and high speed steels.
• Heat treatment of stainless steels; martensitic, ferritic, austenitic.
• Heat treatment of cast irons; factors affecting graphitization.
• Heat treatment of nonferrous metals and alloys: annealing and recrystallization, cold work, phase diagrams, mechanical properties

Indicative Resources

1. George E. T. (2006) Steel Heat Treatment: Metallurgy and Technologies, CRC, 1st Ed.
2. Zakharov B. (2007) Heat Treatment of Metals, University Press of the Pacific, 1st Ed.

Students will meet the objectives listed above through a combination of the following instructions in this course:

• Attend all lectures
• Check Moodle course page frequently
• Submit projects on time
• Actively participate in design project team
• Respect the provided format for project report

Facilitator:

• Names:  Dr Bernard MUSHIRABWOBA
• Designation: Lecturer
• Tel:+250737242339
• Email: b.mushirabwoba@ur.ac.rw